Week 6

Honeybees

When I listened to Jason’s lecture on bees, I kept getting surprised on how importance of these little species to our nature. I have learned a lot about honey bees and beehive building. One of the parts in Jason’s lecture that captured my concerns is his talk about the movie “The Swarm.” While in the past, we had made such a sci-fiction movie about the invasion of bees, we nowadays have to worry about a rapid decline in honey bee colonies. This actually points out how much the environment have changed.

Honeybees

When I listened to Jason’s lecture on bees, I kept getting surprised on how importance of these little species to our nature. I have learned a lot about honey bees and beehive building. One of the parts in Jason’s lecture that captured my concerns is his talk about the movie “The Swarm.” While in the past, we had made such a sci-fiction movie about the invasion of bees, we nowadays have to worry about a rapid decline in honey bee colonies. This actually points out how much the environment have changed.

All About Bees!

We were also able to try some of Jason's delicious honey! My favorite was the orange honey and a close second was the clover. Jason mentioned that only certain types of honey have medicinal benefits, such as the Manuka honey. This was news to me, because I thought any raw form of honey would have health benefits. This makes me wonder whether my mother has been scammed at farmers markets all along! My mother would pay $20+ for a jar of honey, because the sellers would say that their honey builds up strong immune systems. I did my own research and found this helpful site, which describes multiple types of honey and its different health benefits! For example, clover honey promotes wound healing and regulates blood pressure, orange blossom honey have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits, and avocado honey is rich in antioxidants and vitamins. (http://www.curejoy.com/content/know-your-honey-different-types-of-honey-and-their-health-benefits/#2)

  

(photo credit: me)

Fight of the Bumblebee

After Jason Fahrion’s lecture on bees, I couldn’t stop thinking of all the ways that bees have been integrated into our culture. The birds and the bees. Mind your own bee’s wax. The Queen Bee. Sweeter than honey. There’s even a 50’s themed diner near my hometown called “The Busy Bee Café”. Although bees have yet to take over our towns as they did in The Swarm (which is extremely unlikely), they certainly have made an impact in our lives.

Bee Protection

The integral nature of bees in our daily lives, demonstrated by “Breakfast without Bees” among others, affirms the delicacy and interconnectedness of nature. My admiration for these tiny yet indispensible creatures was enhanced by Jason Fahrion’s presentation. I did not realize how many facets of agriculture and food production rely on bees for pollination. Because colony collapse disorder continues to threaten the bee population at an alarming rate, current research is becoming ever more critical for their survival.

The Effect of Human Activities on Bees

Jason's bee workshop on Thursday certainly opened my eyes to a new world. Beforehand, the only things I really knew about bees were that they are pollinators, produce honey, and die after they sting. I never realized that they played such a large role in maintaining and providing us with the foods that we eat everyday. I was interested in researching more about how human activities affect the bee population.

Animals and Activism

After having learned of Thursday’s visitor (Jason Fahrion), I read “Bees Making Art: Insect Aesthetics and the Ecological Moment” by Mary Kosut & Lisa Jean Moore. This journal reminded me of the fact that bees have always been in human society and in the art world, but they were usually obscured or taken for granted in both realms.

Science, Innovation, and Creativity!

I was fascinated by everyone's presentations and active discussions. It makes me proud and excited to be among such great, creative minds. We are surely one bright generation :) 

My favorite proposals were Jacob's "Plantronics" and Sarah's "ECOfacts." It is already known that the Earth is a conductor of electricity and we use the ground to place power plants, electric generators for our homes, and multiple other electronic devices. But, it never occurred to me to utilize plants' own natural networking system within the soil instead of wire connections. I didn't even think about the reference to Avatar, where the trees were used for energy. I found an article about a replica of Avatar's 'Tree of Souls' that was built in London's Hyde Park. This tree (picture below) is made up of a metal structure with one root that acted as an electric cable to power the whole tree and it's glowing fiber optic cables. The article said that the tree provided it's own WiFi network so visitors could log into their website and play music to change the tree's colors. Although this tree was man made, we could possible use living plants to do the same thing - transmit electricity. 

(Photo credit: http://www.nachi.org/grounding-electrodes.htm)

    

(photo credit: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/04/tree-of-souls-found-growing-in-central-london.html)

"Ecofacts" was such an innovative proposal. Sarah's project design was also well thought out and user friendly. I believe that, in theory, this idea could do wonders for our society and environment. However, like many people addressed in class, the meat industry and the government has so much authority over food production that it would be a challenge to implement this idea. Also, food production is a large multi-step process and it would be hard to track an accurate usage of water, carbon dioxide, land usage, etc. I am not sure if farmers/producers even measure these usages. I feel like current ways of being 'green' is by changing ways food is produced. I found an article on this Meat Plant Waste System that saves carbon dioxide emission equal to 2,700 cars! The biotechnology uses anaerobic bacteria to digest around 80% of the organic matter in waste water and produce green energy. 

I completely agree with Sarah's statement that "change begins with education" and Ecofacts is a great way to make people more aware of what they are consuming. Other methods of providing education is through sites such as Food Production Daily (http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Trends/Going-green).

Green Energy Orb (photo credit: http://www.cstwastewater.com/oakey-beefs-spectacular-green-energy-orb-opens-the-way-to-environmentally-outstanding-and-profitable-performance/)

(photo credit: http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Trends/Going-green)

 

References

Gromicko, Nick and Shepard, Kenton. "Home Service Grounding Electrodes." InterNACHI. http://www.nachi.org/grounding-electrodes.htm

"Local and Regional Food Systems." GRACE Communications Foundation. http://www.sustainabletable.org/254/local-regional-food-systems

"Oakey Beef’s spectacular green energy orb opens the way to environmentally outstanding and profitable performance." CST Wastewater Solutions. http://www.cstwastewater.com/oakey-beefs-spectacular-green-energy-orb-opens-the-way-to-environmentally-outstanding-and-profitable-performance/

Richards, Julian. "'Tree of Souls' Found Growing in Central London." CultureLab. 26 Apr 2010. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/04/tree-of-souls-found-growing-in-central-london.html

Whitehead, RJ. "Unique Meat Plant Waste System Hailed as Green Vision of the Future." Food Production Daily. 4 May 2015. http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Innovations/Unique-meat-plant-waste-system-hailed-as-green-vision-of-the-future

 

The Power of The Evil Eye

During Week 5, where we learned about quantumentanglement we briefly discussed the power of the evil eye. It was explained that the great philosopher, Aristotle said that we have water all around our eyes and we have a certain flow of energy going to regions where we can affect the objects, animals, and people around us. Additionally, it was said evil eye was discussed in Shakespeare’s Midnight Summer’s Dream where the girl had poison in her eyes, which gave her the power to make someone fall in love with her solely by looking at them. 

Of the Earth

Christina and Ellie's installation made me think of the social networks that exist between scientists (or between scientists and artists). The career path I hope to take is one that falls under "different" disciplines. Psychology + Public Health = Public Mental Health. When you consider either psychology or public health on their own (or chemistry and physics), they seem rigidly distinct.

Of Bacteria and Soil

It’s been a while since I last blogged about Hnrs 177, but, I guess it’s better to do it than never. About a week ago I saw the an exhibition on the Dirtmap project. This is a project funded by the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts. Soil collected along the Pacific Crest Trail was gathered by Ellie and sent to Christina, which works at UCLA, to analyze the bacterial species present in each sample.

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