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Watch bacteria mutate before your very eyes

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Watch bacteria mutate before your very eyes

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Harvard University grew bacteria in a massive petri dish to show how bacteria mutate and become resistant, even when exposed to higher and higher levels of antibiotics. Incredible to watch!

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The Evolution of Bacteria on a “Mega-Plate” Petri Dish (Kishony Lab)

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Interactive map showing our energy resources

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Interactive map showing our energy resources

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The EIA (Energy Information Administration) has a truly cool, interactive map that makes thinking about our energy resources fun -- well, yeah, and educational too.

The geek in me is all aflutter! LOL

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A bad romance: Coal mining vs. the environment

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A bad romance: Coal mining vs. the environment

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In this TEDx video, Derek Teaney, who is a ninth generation West Virginian and practices environmental law as a senior attorney for the Appalachian Mountain Advocates, discusses growing up in Appalachia and the issues coal mining creates for its people and land.

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Coal and West Virginia: A Bad Romance: Derek Teaney at TEDxLewisburg

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Derek Teaney is a ninth generation West Virginian and practices environmental law as a Senior Attorney for the Appalachian Mountain Advocates. Derek has also worked, professionally, as a snake handler and a marine science instructor, and non-professionally as an actor and a homebrewer.

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What are renewable and non-renewable energy resources? This infographic provides the basics on everything from coal to solar power.

The infographic is part of your assignment for class.

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FDA says OK to salmon with modified genes

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FDA says OK to salmon with modified genes

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The first genetically modified animal -- a salmon created with some added genes from other fish -- may be making its way to your dinner table.

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I feed my kids GMO foods, not organics...

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I feed my kids GMO foods, not organics...

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And I'm not a bad mom, says a Canadian mom/nurse who's weary of the sudden panic over GMOs. After all, we've been eating them for 20 years.

See her article here.

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I could certainly afford to pay up to 50 percent more for organic food for my children to eat, but I refuse to. I decline to pay the premium for organic food because I cannot justify it when comparable conventional foods (including those with GMOs) are just as healthy and nutritious, and arguably more environmentally friendly.

According to many of my colleagues in this business of motherhood, not feeding my children organic food makes me ill-suited to be a mom. I've actually been called a bad mother, an irresponsible mother, and downright lazy for wanting to feed my children an apple that won't brown when you cut it-the new GM Arctic Apple that's been approved for sale. I didn't realize that what I choose to feed my kids affected so many other people, in turn giving them the right to label me a "Bad Mom". I wish these moms would recognize that we're lucky to have the choice in what food we feed our families when so many in the world don't have a choice.

We have all been eating these alleged "poisonous" GMOs for almost 20 years, yet within the last few years it seems a lot of people (mostly women/moms) are suddenly panicked about them. There have been a few petitions circulating that have increased the paranoia regarding GMOs and conventional agriculture. One petition calls for the removal of GMOs from baby formula and another is to stop pesticide use in conventional dairy products- a campaign started by Stonyfield, an organic yogurt company.

To me the later petition is particularly absurd as its goal is to sell Stonyfield's organic products by throwing their conventional competitors under the bus, even though it doesn't take much Google searching to find out that organic farming uses pesticides too. This campaign strikes an unnecessary wave of fear among unknowing parents who think they are harming their children by feeding them perfectly safe conventional food.

It never sat well with me that so many parents are being needlessly scared so I started engaging on Twitter with some of these parents. Almost instantly I was asked if I was employed by anyone tied to the GMO issue; in other words, was I an industry "shill" for GMOs. It seemed that none of these moms could understand my reasoning for feeding my family healthy foods that just happened to contain GMOs, although I've explained time and time again that science tells me they are safe.

I've found that mothers opposed to GMOs tend to be strident and even threatening. One anti-GMO activist blogger recently accused me on her Facebook page of being a stalker because I reacted on Twitter to some her anti-GMO tweets. She posted about it on her Facebook page, asking her "friends" whether "you think I need to involve the police....I'm not messing around with my kids."

Apparently not only does the fact that I do not feed my kids organic food make me a bad mother, it makes me a threat to someone's children 1500 miles away from me and grants me stalker status. Why? Because I posted some tweets challenging some of her misstatements about GMOs? This is how emotional and paranoid some activists-who are usually woman and often moms-can be .

I'm also frustrated by the way the media misrepresents organic foods. Last year, I came across an article in Parenting Magazine that supposedly summarized a meta- study by Stanford University scientists and published by the American Academy of Pediatrics on the health and environmental advantages and disadvantages of organic food. The magazine headlined its article "AAP: Organic Food Good For Kids," writing among other things that there is "convincing evidence that eating organic foods reduces exposure to pesticides."

But that's not what the researchers found. They concluded: "In the long term, there is currently no direct evidence that consuming an organic diet leads to improved health or lower risk of disease." While the study found that there is no significant pesticide residue in conventional foods, the parenting article massaged this to say that eating organic food may limit exposure to pesticides and that parents should buy organic if you can afford it to "cover your bases". Well, that advice seems to be quite baffling as it's not what the researchers concluded; no wonder parents can be so confused. Why can't a supposedly objective and respected magazine just tell it like it is!

I don't feel guilt-ridden for not buying organic food for my kids and neither should you. Here's some food for thought: the World Health Organization (WHO), which I hold up at high standards as a Registered Nurse, states this about genetically modified foods:

...no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved.

WHO also tells me that breastfeeding exclusively for the first 6 months of a baby's life is the optimal way for feeding infants. I was able to successfully do that with my second child when only 10% of mothers in Canada reach that goal. Yet I'm an awful mom now because I do not feed my children only organic food, right?

Many organic food proponents abide by the "better safe than sorry" rule (the precautionary principle of motherhood), when it comes to food. I agree with that in my kids' lives, I really do, but not when it comes to how their solid food is produced. It's why I breastfed my babies for as long as I could and why I pay top dollar for car seats, rear-face my toddlers, and won't let them wear bulky winter jackets in their car seats when it's minus 30 degrees outside. I care about my children's health and safety immensely, but no food is ever 100 percent safe, including organic food.

I know that I am a good mom. Some days I even call myself a great mom, and I don't deserve to be called a bad mom for not feeding my kids organic food. Don't let the anti-GMO activist moms bully you into thinking that organic is the only or best way when it comes to feeding your kids. I assure you it is not. For me, it's more important to feed my children a well-balanced diet of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, milk products and meat than to pay outrageous prices for organic foods because of unwarranted fears of a slightly increased risk of pesticide exposure at levels the world's best scientists say is harmless. As long as the food is safe and healthy-and that's what the best science says about conventional foods including GMOS-then buy what you want, that's what I say.
Sarah Schultz is a nurse, farm wife, mom of two young boys, and blogger. She's passionate about educating readers about agriculture and life on her family's grain farm near Calgary. You can follow her on Twitter @NurseLovesFarmr and on Facebook.

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I feed my kids GMO foods and not organics--That doesn't make me a 'bad mom'

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I'm a registered nurse who lives in Alberta and loves a farmer. I feed my kids only the most nutritious foods--whether genetically modified or not shouldn't matter.

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The Infectious Diseases Society of America has collected several real-life stories of children and adults whose lives were threatened -- and sometimes lost -- due to antibiotic-resistant infections.

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Antibiotics: Understanding the pros and cons

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Antibiotics: Understanding the pros and cons

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In this article, the author gives an overview of why we should be thankful for -- and cautious about -- using antibiotics.

This article is used for a classroom assignment.

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Our country likes to split into teams over just about everything--from the broad swaths of political beliefs and religion to the narrowest minutiae of our favorite athletes. On the topic of medicine, the divisions are no less plentiful. Some prefer Western medicine and others Eastern; some are pro-vaccine and others anti; some are antibiotic enthusiasts and some are medication refusers. Ultimately, these beliefs guide what people put (and don't put) into their bodies.

Next week begins "Get Smart About Antibiotics Week," a three year old invention of the Centers for Disease Control. The goal, simply, is to educate people. You see, when it comes to medical notions, it's not okay just to pick a side. If you hail antibiotics as silver bullets or if you categorically reject them, neither approach is exactly right--or healthy. How did we wind up with such strong emotions about medication?

The antibiotic over-enthusiasts came by it honestly. When I was young, just after oral penicillin had become widely available, a pink, bubble gum flavored version 2.0 arrived in the form of amoxicillin. Most of us in our 30s, 40s and 50s can vividly remember the taste of that perfectly sweet, slightly chalky liquid going down. It seemed like whenever there was a sore throat or the slightest runny nose in our house, amoxicillin rushed to the rescue.

Apparently, I wasn't alone. Antibiotic enthusiasm was in full swing through the 1970s and 80s. Doctors admittedly overused the drugs and, as newer more potent variations were developed, they overused those too. We are seeing the repercussions today in the form of antibiotic resistance. It turns out that these drugs aren't magic bullets at all: when you have a common cold you are infected with a virus--not a bacteria--and as a result antibiotics have no benefit.

Though antibiotics do wipe out certain bacterial infections--like the bugs that cause sinusitis, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and other ailments--whatever doesn't kill you does make you stronger and this goes for bacteria too. So when a patient is given an antibiotic, a series of things must go right: the infection needs to be susceptible to antibiotics, the doctor has to prescribe the right drug at the right dose, the patient has to take the entire course (which usually goes well beyond when he feels better), and all of the targeted bacteria must die. If one of these steps is missed, the bacteria residing in your body can build resistance to the very antibiotic you are taking. So much for over-enthusiasm.

The antibiotic rejecters generally understand the concepts of inappropriate antibiotic use and resistance, but their rationale isn't completely right either. This group will do anything possible to avoid the use of antibiotics. They will stay home from school or skip work in order to rest and hydrate and heal. These are terrific solutions, don't get me wrong, because the very act of staying put limits the spread of the infection. But the majority of antibiotic-rejecters will also pump themselves full of over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, supplements or herbs that promise non-pharmaceutical-grade remedies.

The problem here is that over-the-counter medicines are exactly that: medicines, just sold without a prescription. And because you can buy these straight off the shelf (the label usually replete with medicinal looking flowers or claims of "organic" or "natural" healing powers), consumers believe they are less dangerous. But it's actually the reverse that is true. Over-the-counter medicines are not subject to the rigorous testing that prescription drugs are--there is no agency assigned to make sure that your therapeutic concoction really includes what is promised. Add to this that no one is studying the safety of its "all natural" ingredients. It actually takes consumer advocacy groups and vigilant individuals to identify the problems in vitamins, nutritional supplements, and other over-the-counter cures.

Antibiotic refusers also run the risk of rejecting the one treatment that can make them better. In many cases, the body gets through an illness and all ends well. But not infrequently enough, the bacteria organize a coup in the body and they take over. Infections that go untreated can cause grave illness, sometimes even death. If you need an antibiotic, refusing to take one can be life-threatening.

So in the end, neither group is right and neither group is wrong. When we get sick, we should absolutely take good care of ourselves. That includes vigilant hand washing and pulling ourselves out of circulation so that we don't spread our illness to others. But we also need to rely upon the help of our doctors rather than using a self-diagnosis to demand or refuse particular treatment. Next week, educate yourself a-la CDC and learn a bit more about why and how particular antibiotics really work.

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Understanding The Pros And Cons Of Antibiotics

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Our country likes to split into teams over just about everything--from the broad swaths of political beliefs and religion to the narrowest minutiae of our favorite athletes. On the topic of medicine, the divisions are no less plentiful. Some prefer Western medicine and others Eastern; some are pro-vaccine and others anti; some are antibiotic enthusiasts and some are medication refusers.

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Genetically modified organisms (GMOs): Science vs. public fear

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Genetically modified organisms (GMOs): Science vs. public fear

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Scientist Borut Bohanec wishes the public had a better understanding of GMOs. In his TED Talks presentation, he gives real examples of genetic engineering of plants, such as the black tomato, and also speaks about public fears.

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GMO controversies - science vs. public fear: Borut Bohanec at TEDxLjubljana

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Here's a great overview: simple machines.

If you're looking for something a bit more fun, try these videos of Rube Goldberg machines. Try to identify the simple machines in each "contraption."

Wake Up animation

OK Go's This Too Shall Pass

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What you know about motion vs. a helmet commercial

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What you know about motion vs. a helmet commercial

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What this and then describe how it relates to what you've learned about motion.

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Discover an incredible experience. Trying to reproduce the newton's cradle, energy transmission experiment, with moto helmets. Completely crazy and so "pulse" spirit. And you, what's your freedom instinct?

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What do elastic collisions have to do with great billiards tricks?

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What do elastic collisions have to do with great billiards tricks?

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The law of conservation of momentum says that if no other forces act on two objects that collide, their total momentum remains the same after they interact. In elastic collisions, momentum and energy are conserved, meaning objects keep moving without energy being converted (or the matter being deformed).

What do those two things have to do with the cool billiards tricks on this video?

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Lucky people and the inelastic collisions they avoided

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Lucky people and the inelastic collisions they avoided

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In this video, you'll find dozens of examples of inelastic (or near inelastic) collisions. In inelastic collisions, some of the energy is changed into other forms. Like when two cars collide, the energy is converted into the twisting of metal and plastic.

I'm thinking a lot of the people featured in this video poo'ed themselves. What's your take on the matter? ;D

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AMAZING!!The Luckiest People In The World 2015

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If you enjoy the video make sure to subscribe for update To summit video sent it to this email thextremehd6@gmail.com

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Safety, speed, and the science of NASCAR

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Safety, speed, and the science of NASCAR

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If you don't think that science topics such as force, kinetic energy, and conservation of energy have anything to do with real life, check out this video about how NASCAR vehicles are designed for crashes. This same science goes into the design of the car you drive every day.

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Conservation of energy explains how NASCAR's new car helped driver Michael McDowell walk away from a scary crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2008.

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Here's a good one to explore: an interactive cell model.

Take a look at all the organelles (little organs) and create your own simple description of what each does.

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We are going to create shared notes about types of plants and their parts.

Go to this document: Shared notes.

Type a summary or the basic facts about the section you were assigned. Feel free to help one another and ask questions. :D