The cosmetics industry is possibly one of the most unregulated industries. Major loopholes in federal law allows chemicals to be put into personal care products without any monitoring of health effects, almost no labeling requirements and no required testing.

According to the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, “the regulatory requirements governing the sale of cosmetics are not as stringent as those that apply to other FDA-regulated products… manufacturers may use any ingredient or raw material, except for color additives and a few prohibited substances, to market a product without a government review or approval.”

It then becomes the responsibility of the manufacturers to voluntarily validate the safety of their
products. Unfortunately, the decision between safety and profit doesn’t seem to register for many manufacturers, leaving many personal care product ingredients completely untested.

A report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental watchdog agency, revealed that 89 percent of the 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products had not been evaluated for safety by the FDA. Furthermore, the FDA does not enforce recalls of products found to be hazardous or defective, leaving it in the hands of manufacturers to take dangerous products off of the market.

The chemicals in any one product alone are unlikely to cause harm, but daily exposure to the industrial chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products can take its toll. According to the Good Housekeeping Institute, 60 percent of what you put on your skin is absorbed into the bloodstream, and some of these products’ chemicals are linked to birth defects, cancer and other health problems that are increasing in the human population.

Health risks posed by cosmetics can include anything from allergic reactions to cancer, and the lack of safety standards allows manufacturers to use some very harmful ingredients, including coal tar and paraben preservatives.

Parabens are common preservatives that appear in a wide array of toiletries. Parabens break down in the body into p-hydroxybenzoic acid, which has estrogenic activity in human breast-cancer cell cultures. Nine out of ten liquid foundations sold at Target contain parabens, including most name brands and several claiming to be “natural” products. Revlon, Cover Girl, Mineral Wear, and Botanics all contain parabens.

You can also find carcinogenic coal tar, used in artificial dyes such as FD&C Blue 1 and FD&C Green 3, in your everyday moisturizers. “Fragrance,” which is usually a conglomeration of chemicals, is another common ingredient in moisturizers and personal care products. Fragrance masks chemical smells, but may also mask phthalates. Scientists have shown that phthalates can damage the female reproductive system, but it is the male reproductive system that appears to be more sensitive.

Phthalate exposure damages the testes, prostate gland, epididymus, penis, and seminal vesicles in laboratory animals, according to a report done by EWG in 2002. A study conducted by the University of Minnesota, published in the May 2005 Environmental Health Perspectives, found a connection between phthalates and genital abnormalities in baby boys.

Neurotoxic lead may appear in personal care products as a naturally occurring contaminant of hydrated silica, one of the ingredients in toothpaste. Every brand of toothpaste sold at Target that The Wake examined, including Aquafresh, Colgate, and Crest, had hydrated silica listed as an ingredient.

Possible human carcinogens, petroleum distillates, (often labeled as “liquid paraffin”) are prohibited or restricted for use in cosmetics in Europe but are found in several U.S. brands of mascara. Five out of eight mascara labels read “liquid paraffin” at Target, including Rimmel and Cover Girl.

Many conventional bath and shower products contain the foaming agent sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), and propylene glycol - ingredients also found in anti-freeze, engine degreasers and solvents. According to the American College of Toxicology, SLS is a “potent class of carcinogen.” About 60 percent of soaps sold at Target contained SLS, including name brands Aveno, Dial, Pure and Natural, and Old Spice.

With so many harmful chemicals being used in personal care products today, it comes as no surprise that there has been increasing interest in organic alternatives. Sales of organic personal care products in the U.S. increased by 15 percent annually to almost $9 billion in 2007, according to the Nutrition Business Journal.

“If it falls under the organic umbrella it must be certified by the organic certification organization,” said Kathryn Lawrence, the manager of personal care products at the Seward Co-op, an organic grocery and deli located on 2111 East Franklin Avenue. Certech Registration Inc. is the independent accredited certifying body that has developed North America’s first system certification standard for organic and natural cosmetics.

In order to be certified as “natural” under the IOS Cosmetics Standard, a minimum of 95 percent of the product must be of natural origin and must also use certified organic ingredients which have been grown, cultivated, and stored without the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fumigants or other toxins, according to the Certech Registration Web site.

Yet many of the self-proclaimed “pure” products lining the Target shelves, such as Tom’s, Pure and Natural, Botanics and Mineral Wear, all contain chemicals such as hydrated silica, parabens, and sodium lauryl sulfate.

While newfound standards allow personal care products to be certified organic, they have not set any regulations against the use of the word “organic” on product labels. Many manufacturers still use the term in the product’s name or on the labeling. Products with at least one organic ingredient can be deemed “organic,” in spite of the other ingredients used.

“Regulation is just starting to filter into the cosmetics and personal care industry, but Europe has been doing it for years,” Lawrence said. “I think the FDA is going to jump on the band wagon and realize that organics is a big money making industry.”

Lawrence said she hopes for a future of organic personal care products that “keep true to their course,” and are not falsely labeled.

But organic products also pose a conundrum. What exactly are “organic” cosmetics? Do they work as well as their chemical laden counterparts? And why do they cost so much more?

Organic products are made exclusively from organically grown plant material without industrial chemicals, pesticides, or genetic manipulation. They replace chemical substances with natural equivalents, for example preservatives such as rose extract for parabens, or jojoba oil for liquid paraffin. These natural ingredients are much more expensive, hence the high cost of organic products.

But scientific purists claim that natural products aren’t necessarily safer. Some organic products can become toxic when they degrade “Products that contain natural preservatives have much shorter shelve lives,” said Lawrence. “Just like with food, you can usually tell they have molded by the smell.”

“If you are someone who likes to keep a tube of mascara for two years, which is bad anyway, organic products may not be the best for you,” she said.

But do they work? Research on the efficacy and safety of organic products has been minimal. Small studies have been conducted into the effects of certain ingredients. Pine bark and blueberry, for example, have shown that they may combat skin ageing, and chamomile and aloe vera have been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects. But the combination of these ingredients in a product is seldom tested.

However, Lawrence says that organic products are the way to go. “They are so much better in so many ways,” she said. “You use these products so close to your mouth, eyes, and on your skin, and organic personal care products are not going to have chemicals like parabens, which are known to cause cancer.”

Awareness is the key. The Safe Cosmetics Act, passed in California in 2005, and companies like Certech are some of the first steps being taken in the U.S. against poor regulation and safety evaluation in the beauty industry. But consumers can take the issue into their own hands as well.

“Lately there are so many different Web sites that tell you how clean a certain product is,” Lawrence said. “Consumers are becoming educated and more aware of what they are putting on their skin.”

With Web sites like National Geographic’s Green Guide and the campaign for safe cosmetics, consumers can have lists of hazardous chemicals, scientific studies and shopping tips right at their fingertips. Some sites even give recipes for consumers to create their own personal care products, chemical-free. As the FDA sits on the decision on whether or not to regulate the cosmetics industry, our health is at risk, and it is up to consumers to make the choice between a cheap chemical bath and their well being.

Chocolate is everywhere! Holidays such as Halloween and Valentine’s Day make it a staple in everyone’s diet for at least two weeks surrounding the actual day. Songs, such as the infamous YouTube classic “Chocolate Rain,” have wormed their way into our brains. Chocolate is so popular that unsavory creatures, like ants and grasshoppers, covered in the creamy goodness are considered a fine delicacy. It seems like chocolate surrounds us and is something we are all familiar with, but do we really know what it is?

Doctor Gary Reineccius does! He is a food chemist and professor in the College of Food Sciences and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota and has been studying chocolate and its flavors for over 40 years. His job consists of chemically breaking down food and detecting which chemicals produce smells and tastes. According to Reineccius, there are 800 aroma compounds in chocolate which give it a rich flavor.

“Of the foods in life, I truly like chocolate better than anything else,” Reineccius said. In his lecture at the annual Classes Without Quizzes presentation held by the College of Food and Natural Science, Reineccius explained the life process of chocolate.

Chocolate begins its life as a cacao plant in the warm climate in the region 20 degrees north or south of the equator. It is most commonly found in Central America, the Ivory Coast of Africa and Malaysia. The small tree grows cocoa pods, which hold approximately 30 beans, on its lower branches. The pods are harvested to undergo a fermentation process.

Fermentation entails laying the beans out either on banana leaves or in fermentation boxes, while being rotated for up to six days. Next, the beans must dry to prevent molding.

“Moldiness is not a pleasant additive to chocolate flavor,” Reineccius joked.

To ensure that the chocolate will be delicious and fungi-free, the beans are placed in the sun to bake and dry. Warmer weather results in a better quality bean. Another drying technique used during bad climates is artificial drying, which is done with wood and fire. However, there is danger of having an off flavor due to wood smoke, Reineccius said.

Once the beans are dried, they are sent overseas to be processed, which includes roasting, grinding, pressing and smoothing out the beans. The beans reach a temperature anywhere between 130 and 150 degrees Celsius for thirty minutes in order to develop flavor and lose any moisture that may have been regained since the drying process.

Once roasted, the beans are ground, creating a chocolate “liquor,” which boasts a fat content of 50 percent. This fat must be removed, to prevent the world’s population from becoming large, unshapely blobs, so the liquor is sent through hydraulic presses. With some of the fat removed, cocoa powder, one of the main ingredients in chocolate is created.

The final steps en route to the perfect chocolate involve the concept of smoothing. The chocolate particles must first be refined all the way down to a size between 25 and 65 micrometers. The more refined a piece of chocolate is, the smoother texture it has, which means it is more valuable and costly. Finally, the chocolate is conched, or stirred within a giant tub for 30 days, to enhance richness. After all of these steps, chocolate becomes what the consumer puts into their belly.

With 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate eaten each year around the globe, it would be devastating if the cacao tree were to ever become endangered. In attempts to keep chocolate thriving forever and to possibly lower fat intake as well as cost, scientists have been researching the possibility of using different fat ingredients in the recipe, but still calling it chocolate. This has received mixed reactions within the food industry and Reineccius believes that this new product would not be categorized as chocolate if it were to be available on the market.

“It may make it cheaper, but in the end it won’t be a better product,” he said. “It won’t taste better. It will probably taste worse.”

Let’s review the ingredients. Chocolate is comprised of chocolate “liquor,” cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla, emulsifiers and milk. What? No crack? Then why is this magical, silky brown material beyond addicting? Reineccius prefers to use the word craving instead of addiction.

“You’re never addicted to chocolate. An addiction is more along the lines of what happens with cigarettes and drugs. We don’t want to put chocolate in that category. You have a craving for it. People don’t attempt to hold up banks for chocolate,” he explained.

There are many theories regarding the craving based off of dietary reasons or enhancement of serotonin or endorphins in the brain, but according to Reineccius, people crave chocolate simply because they like it and they want to treat themselves.

The mystery is solved. Chocolate is derived from beans in a tree, which undergo an intense processing procedure to become one of the world’s most precious and beloved desserts.

Artificial sweeteners have been a boon to the diet foods industry, allowing companies to market foods to a weight obsessed populace with an insatiable sweet tooth. In the U.S. artificial sweeteners are a $1.5 billion market. “Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper,” the TV tells us. “Zero calories!” the bottle of Coke Zero screams at us from the shelf. “Drink as many as you want!” But should we?

Most of the concern over artificial sweeteners stems from their possible carcinogenic properties. The most commonly used artificial sweeteners in the U.S. are aspartame (Equal), saccharin (Sweet ‘n Low), and sucralose (Splenda). Aspartame and saccharin have a long history of controversy over their carcinogenic potential. The FDA has been on the verge of banning saccharin several times, and up until 2001 all products containing saccharin had to bear the warning label, “Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.” Similarly, rats fed high doses of aspartame had increased incidences of lymphoma and leukemia, and a 1996 report associated the approval of aspartame with an increase in the number of people with brain tumors.

Illustration by Sarah Morean

However, according to the National Cancer Institute, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, there is no clear evidence of an association between artificial sweeteners and cancer in humans. The results found in studies performed on lab animals are unique to those animals and their specific metabolism. In 2000, saccharin was removed from the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s Report on Carcinogens, and subsequently the labeling requirement was removed. Data from a National Cancer Institute study of over half a million retirees found no association between an increase in consumption of aspartame-containing beverages and the development of lymphoma, leukemia, or brain cancer.

It seems as if half of the products one encounters daily are linked, in one way or another, to cancer, and the immediate and pressing health problems and social stigma associated with being overweight outweigh the far-off risk of cancer. Disregarding any risk of cancer, if there is any, artificial sweeteners seem like good products. They do not cause tooth decay, and are diabetic and hypoglycemic-friendly. On the surface they appear to be great weight loss aids, allowing people to eat the same sweet foods, which they find palatable, while consuming fewer calories.

Nevertheless, a recent study published by Purdue University found that rats whose diet was supplemented with yogurt sweetened by saccharin, ate more and put on more weight overall than rats whose diet was supplemented by yogurt sweetened by glucose. Rats eating saccharin sweetened yogurt consumed five to ten percent more calories, gained 20 percent more weight, and had an increase in body fat of over five percent. These results indicate, though they do not prove, that rather than helping in weight loss, artificial sweeteners may make weight loss more difficult.

When we taste something sweet, it signals to the body that calories are on the way. By simulating sweet taste without delivering on the calories, the authors of the study have hypothesized that artificial sweeteners disrupt the systems controlling calorie intake and appetite.

Critics inevitably point out the fact that humans are not rats. While these results are certainly interesting and merit further study, they are not directly applicable to humans. Furthermore, studies performed on humans have shown opposite results to the rat study. A 1990 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that adults drinking aspartame sweetened soda lost around one pound, while those drinking soda sweetened with high fructose corn syrup gained around 1.5 pounds. A Danish study published in the same journal in 2002, using both food and drinks sweetened with a variety of artificial sweeteners, found similar results. However, larger, longer studies have found a positive correlation between drinking diet soda and weight gain and higher obesity rates.

Clearly, there is no definitive answer. More research is needed to determine if and how artificial sweeteners disrupt calorie intake and appetite control systems, and, if they do, how this disruption influences diet efforts and weight gain. One thing that we know for sure is that if you’re worried about weight gain, the best bet is to save your money and drink some truly zero-calorie water instead.

Building 14 of 2010 East Hennepin Ave SE looks abandoned. Like the other buildings on the large cement lot, its cracked foundation is made of dark brown bricks and features unlit, grimy windows. The collection of some 15 buildings was once owned by General Mills, but now play host to a variety of businesses, artists and artisans. The only evidence of life is the few hand made signs posted on the exterior walls: “Zelle Glass Studio,” “Deco Catering,” and “Yeowww! Brand Catnip,” just to name a few. While Building 14 is devoid of any business signs, within a few seconds of walking through its doors, the intense aromas provide only one conclusion: chocolate.

Brian McElrath, founder of B.T. McElrath Chocolatier, feels right at home in his underground chocolate factory. Since 1997, McElrath has been producing fine artisan chocolates locally in Minneapolis. Over the years, his distribution has expanded all over the country, and his workspace has increased from one room to four.
“These rooms used to be practice spaces for bands,” he says. “Back then, I was really doing everything myself.” Despite national distribution, his four-room complex is small compared to the factories where industrial, mass produced chocolate is created.

“My entire facility is about the size of a single laboratory in a bigger company,” he says. “Those places can be producing tons of chocolate with just a couple guys pushing buttons.”

With such a small location and established competition, it seems miraculous that independent chocolatiers exist, let alone become successful. McElrath has the calm demeanor and level headedness of a businessman, but the excitement in his voice indicates an utter devotion to his trade. After numerous awards and appearances on both the Travel Channel and the Food Network, B.T. McElrath has proven that it is a possibility to make it in the chocolate industry.

“In the mid 1960’s the price of cocoa skyrocketed. All of a sudden [chocolate manufacturers] began paying a dime for what used to cost them a nickel,” McElrath says. To compensate, quality went down and chocolate became a mass produced “commodity.”

“European chocolate managed to maintain a high level of standards, but American chocolate really decreased in quality after the 60’s,” he says.

Today, Hershey and Nestle products are available at every gas station and grocery store. While their prices are low and their supply endless, the abundance of mass-produced chocolate creates a niche market for small chocolatiers who are more concerned with customer satisfaction and quality.

“Our prices don’t reflect a commodity,” he says. “A specialty food is something someone seeks out without shopping. [Our customers] know our products are high quality.”

So where does this sought out “quality” come from? McElrath began his career in the culinary arts at the California Culinary Academy, where he had to take a confectionary elective as part of a requirement. “That’s where the chocolate bug bit me,” he says.

After graduating, McElrath spent nearly 20 years devoted to the culinary arts, working everywhere from a country club to a private yacht that made yearly visits to the Bahamas. During these years he gained proficiency.

“I did that for 20 years, but I needed a change,” he says. He realized that the expertise he gained in balancing sauces could be carried over to fillings for chocolate. “The voices in my head started telling me I really wanted to work with chocolate, so that’s what I did,” he says.

By mixing and matching different ingredients, McElrath’s chocolates became unique in taste. “The buzzword then was ‘nouvelle cuisine,’ what we called melding different types of cuisine together,” he says. With this idea in mind, McElrath was able to broaden the spectrum of flavor for the chocolate he developed. For example, the Caramelized Raspberry Ganache is described on his web site as, “A dark chocolate caramelized red raspberry ganache, with a hint of hazelnut enrobed in 60% dark chocolate and topped with dried red raspberries.” Despite the combination of so many different ingredients, McElrath cannot downplay the importance of the actual chocolate. “The chocolate always has to prevail,” he says. “Chocolate really has an intense flavor, so it takes a lot of time to correctly balance the flavor.”

That balance has apparently been found. McElrath stated that he has a broad range in customers across the country. Recently, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, when in the area, asked for B.T. McElrath chocolates by name. “He came into one of my retailers and dropped like 200 bucks on chocolate,” McElrath says.

However, B.T. McElrath isn’t the only chocolatier in Minneapolis. Across the hall in Building 14 is another entrepreneur of the same trade, Colin Gaskow, owner and operator of The Rogue Chocolatier. When asked about the tension or friendliness that must occur between neighboring competitors, McElrath says, “I’ve found that between craftsmen, there is always a level of respect and friendliness. There are things we don’t tell one another…but we’re friends. We share.”

There is also a difference between the two chocolatiers. Namely, Gaskow specializes in creating chocolate from raw cocoa beans, while McElrath focuses on taking chocolate and combining it with different ingredients to modify its flavor. Though the Rogue Chocolatier was out of the country looking for new sources of cocoa beans, McElrath was able to say a few words on his behalf.

“He is certainly ambitious. The level at which he’s working is sheer madness,” McElrath says. Apparently, synthesizing chocolate from raw cocoa beans requires a collection of machinery that is normally found only in large factories, and a level of dedication that is stunning.

With only friendly competition on the local level, B.T. McElrath is looking forward to a bright future. While chocolates available in many retail stores across the country, McElrath states that he is “exploring the different options” of opening a local boutique dedicated to his company’s products. That is good news for the people of Minneapolis, because after a brief sample of a few different products, this Wakie is hooked. My personal favorite? The Salty Dog bar, a rich dark chocolate masterpiece covered in Portuguese sea salt and mixed with a hint of toffee. Pick it up at The Walker Art Center, and prepare to be amazed.

Oh, and one last thing. McElrath likes the Johnny Depp version over the Gene Wilder version. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Engineering students are trading in their graphing calculators for cordless drills and bandanas. Engineers Without Borders is a nonprofit organization that constructs engineering solutions to humanitarian dilemmas in the developing world. Spearheaded in 2000 by charismatic leader Dr. Bernard Amadei and $14,000, EWB has grown to include over 250 professional and student chapters, including a University of Minnesota chapter that recently completed a project in Ghana.

The roads in the rural Ghanian village of Amponasah Akroase are unpaved and lined with open sewers, according to literature from EWB-UMN. “Any local water source likely holds Guinea Worm larvae, which grow to three feet long inside the villager’s intestines, then emerge through a painful blister in the skin.”

Last summer, students from the U of M traveled to this village to discover that one seemingly simple feat of engineering can, quite literally, make all the difference in the world. With some guidance from a faculty member, students designed and implemented a practical solution for the problem – they built a well.

But where do you get the energy to pump water from deep within the earth of a rural African village? The students installed eight 180-watt solar panels to power the 300-volt pump installed in the well. The result: a reliable solution that the villagers can maintain by themselves.

The idea behind EWB is to help without making the area chronically dependent on Western aid. “I’m against charity,” Amadei said to a packed auditorium at the U of M on March 4. “The old saying goes: ‘Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime. I say, teach [the locals] to catch fish, skin fish, put fish in a can, sell the fish, and make a business out of it.”

The experience isn’t just life changing for the locals. “A lot of us came back with completely different insight of what we wanted to do,” said team member David Gasparino about the project in Ghana. Amadei believes engineers learn more from the locals than the locals learn from them. “It’s a two-way street,” he said.

The mission of EWB is two-fold, according to Amadei. “Young people have a lot of creative juice,” he said. “It is important to train them to express creativity in a constructive way.”

In addition to improving the quality of human life in third world countries, Amadei said he hopes EWB will train engineers for a new era of ‘engineering with a human heart.’

“Students are sick of doing problems 5.1 through 5.10 in the back of chapter five,” he said, “and frankly, I am sick of assigning them – it’s a win-win situation”

Amadei thinks engineering programs should teach students to consider the social, environmental and political impacts of their designs. At the University of Colorado at Boulder, he teaches a comprehensive course about “engineering for the other 90 percent” that includes these aspects.

Amadei’s work has not gone without recognition. He has won numerous awards and EWB has gained many dedicated patrons, both large corporation and enthusiastic individuals. “I’m totally committed,” retired teacher Ruth Jones said. “I am going to continue giving to them unless they absolutely blow it – and they won’t blow it.”

EWB is coursing forward with over 200 projects underway and new ideas being generated every day. “Who do I talk to if I want to propose an idea,” asked a woman standing up in the crowded auditorium on March 4, “because I have an idea for an electronic notebook to track children’s’ immunizations.” Amadei commended her enthusiasm. “If you don’t like something – speak out,” he said. “By not speaking out you are allowing genocide to happen over and over again.”

Amadei called for an awareness of poverty and injustice beyond engineering and EWB. “Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and write down your mission statement,” he urged of his audience. “You need to have a mission or you are just a loose cannonball - a boat drifting on the ocean of life… Each one of us has an obligation to make this world a better place.”

Amadei’s voice changed timbre when he spoke about those in need. “They are people who have dreams and hope, be it broken dreams and broken hope,” he said. “They are made of flesh, like you and me.” He ended his lecture with a photograph of children smiling at a solar-powered computer installed in the middle of a desert. “That’s my mission statement,” he concluded, “bringing smiles into the world.”

When you drink a big glass of water from the tap, you probably don’t assume that it’s 100 percent pure H2O; you know there is fluoride in there for healthy teeth and other various chemicals used to kill bacteria and improve taste. What you don’t know is that you are probably also drinking a big, cold glass of the remnants of someone else’s medicine.

On March 9, the Associated Press released a report finding traces of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones in the drinking water of 24 major cities including Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, only caffeine was detected in the tested tap water; however, caffeine is a common contaminant that many scientists use as an indicator for the presence of other pharmaceuticals. Acetaminophen and cotinine, a chemical made by the body when nicotine is metabolized, were found in the Minneapolis watershed. Other cities fared far worse: 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in treated drinking water in Philadelphia and 63 were found in Philadelphia watersheds.

“It’s probably been as long as we have been in the pharmacological revolution that these medicines have been making their way into our lakes rivers and streams and into drinking water sources,” says Paul Schwartz, the National Policy Coordinator for the advocacy group Clean Water Action. “It’s just been over the last decade that we have started to look for them in the water and have developed instruments that are capable of detecting them because they’re available in very small amounts in the water supply.” However, as Americans become increasingly medicated—the number of prescriptions filled annually has risen 12 percent in the last five years to 3.7 billion, and 3.3 billion nonprescription drugs are purchased annually—more pharmaceuticals are appearing in waterways, according to IMS Health, a market research firm for the pharmaceutical industry.

Pharmaceuticals get into waterways and drinking water in a variety of ways. Prescriptions thrown in the trash can leach out of landfills and into groundwater. The vast cocktail of antibiotics and hormones given to animals on feedlots gets into water systems. However, they can also make their way into waterways through people. When people take prescription drugs, some of it is absorbed into the body, but the rest passes through the body and is flushed down the toilet. These chemicals are rarely removed during wastewater treatment and go directly into lakes and streams when wastewater is discharged. Some of this contaminated water is pumped back out of lakes and streams, treated, and piped to consumers. Depending on the sophistication of the drinking water treatment plant, traces of pharmaceuticals are removed. However, removal is technologically advanced, extremely expensive, and the federal government does not require water providers to test for pharmaceuticals or remove them. The Associated Press National Investigative Team contacted 62 major water providers and found that only 28 tested their water for pharmaceuticals, many screening for only one or two.

“There are no standards for these chemicals,” Schwartz says. “These are what the EPA would class as emerging contaminants. This is true both for sewage systems and it’s true also for drinking water systems.”

Certainly, pharmaceuticals found in drinking water and in waterways are at very low levels, measured in parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency does not consider pharmaceuticals to be harmful at these very low doses, and the Minnesota Department of Health has assured consumers that the caffeine found in Minneapolis water is not harmful. However, Schwartz disagrees.

“Just because they’re only detectable in very small amounts doesn’t mean they’re not issues for our aquatic ecosystems and for human health,” he says. The truth is that no one really knows what the potential long-term effects are for being exposed to very low doses of various pharmaceuticals over an entire lifetime. This seems to be a recurring theme for the myriad of chemicals we’re exposed to on a daily basis. “We really don’t understand how it is they interact and we don’t have a fundamental understanding of them chemically in our bodies,” Schwartz says. However, if the health of aquatic animals living in polluted areas is any indicator, the future does not look bright. Male fish are being feminized, producing egg yolk proteins, and cases of intersex fish and other reptiles are becoming increasingly frequent.

One of the larger concerns is the potential effect on reproductive function. Estrogens and other endocrine disrupting compounds, which interfere with the function of natural hormones found in the body, have been discovered in many U.S. waterways, and the affects have already been observed in aquatic animals. “It leads to all sorts of subtle and not so subtle health effects,” Schwartz says. Exposure to estrogen and estrogenic compounds has been linked to a multitude of health problems, including reduced fertility, the feminization of genetic males and cancer. They can also shift the male-to-female ratio towards females.

Birth control pills have received much of the blame for estrogen contamination. The estrogen in birth control pills was long thought to be rendered inactive by the kidneys, which add a sugar molecule before estrogen is excreted. However, according to toxicologists researching estrogen patches for Proctor and Gamble, the bacteria used in wastewater treatment remove this sugar molecule, reactivating the estrogen. The discovery that estrogen from birth control contributes to estrogen contamination and problems associated with estrogen exposure has created a small but significant backlash against hormonal birth control. A group on Facebook called the Anti-Estrogens Campaign has recently received a lot of press for explicitly blaming estrogens from birth control pills for problems associated with estrogen exposure such as lowered sperm count and advocating that women discontinue use of the pill when they’re not in a relationship. However, estrogen from birth control is not the only source of contamination. Certain plastics produce estrogenic compounds, and estrogen used in the production of cattle is a large source of contamination.

Still, all is not lost. “There are lots of nodes of bright promise that are out there,” says Schwartz, pointing to new technologies in wastewater treatment. “One of the things we’re looking at with our sewer systems is getting away from big centralized sewer systems that use lots of water to convey our waste to them and try to separate everything out to using much smaller systems that are neighborhood scale or part of a city scale, and in that using things like soils to remediate a lot of the sewage. Or not even using water at all, looking at waterless toilets and things like that where you’re actually treating the waste products right in the home… It’s sort of a paradigm shift, just like we’re doing on energy.” Pollution prevention, Schwartz says, is a far better solution than trying to remove chemicals during drinking water treatment. Processes such as reverse osmosis can remove pharmaceuticals from drinking water, but are costly due to the amount of energy necessary and also create several gallons of wastewater for every gallon of clean water.

By changing their behavior, people can also help prevent pollution. “If we didn’t take the old drugs and flush them down the toilet, that’s one source,” Schwartz says. “If big firms and hospitals that have lots of old drugs hanging out dispose of them properly, that would be better as well. There are a lot of things that we can do to make a difference.”

The argument over whether or not exposure to traces of pharmaceuticals is harmful, and what should be done if they are, has divided into two camps. Government and industry are on one side, and advocacy groups such as Clean Water Action and the Sierra Club are on the other while each have scientists backing up their point of view. According to Schwartz, progress has been made in creating programs to clean up waterways and regulate pollution. “Those [programs] are working highly variably, from very well to not at all. And the basic laws that spin those out are under attack by polluters,” he says. And while they duke it out, fish continue to grow ovaries and consumers continue drinking their eight glasses a day of whatever the hell comes out of their tap.

Window cleaner

¼ cup white vinegar
½ teaspoon liquid soap or detergent
2 cups water

Combine ingredients in a spray bottle and shake to blend.

Carpet spot remover

Blot the stain immediately. Sprinkle with baking soda, cornstarch or borax and let dry. Wash with club soda and vacuum.

Bathroom Cleaner (tile, bathtub, sink)

½ cup baking soda
Enough liquid dish soap or detergent to make the mixture a frosting-like consistency
5 to 10 drops essential oil (lemon, lavender or peppermint work well)

Place baking soda in a bowl and slowly pour in the liquid soap, stirring continually. Add essential oil. Use a sponge to apply, and rinse clean with water.

All-purpose cleaner

¼ cup white vinegar
2 teaspoons borax
3½ cups hot water
20 drops essential oil (go for lavender or peppermint)
¼ cup liquid dish soap

In a 32oz spray bottle, mix the vinegar, borax and water thoroughly. Add essential oil. Add dish soap last.

DOs and DON’Ts:

DO label all products with name, intended use, ingredients and date made.
DO control pests by putting food away
DON’T use bleach or ammonia if possible. Never mix the two, with each other or with other products

For more recipes please visit www.care2.com or www.thegreenguide.com.

Global warming is arguably the defining issue of our generation and much of what we are doing to try to slow it down is based on science. Science is now becoming one of the largest sources for jobs and money. One only has to look overseas to India or China to see the huge effect that scientific advancement can have on the economy of a country. There have also been reports on the diplomatic powers of science, noting the fact that it can often bring countries together, despite having issues on other fronts.

Plainly said, the next president has to be aware that science will have an important effect on many things in the coming years. Thankfully, some people have already started the push and 57 universities (including the University of Minnesota), the American Association for The Advancement of Science (one of the largest scientific associations in the country), and a host of other organizations and businesses are all backing Science Debate 2008. An invitation has been sent to the candidates with an expected date set for April 18.

For more information go to: www.sciencedebate2008.com.

As lids stretch down, eyelash meeting eyelash, peace falls over an audience hidden in darkness to the sound of steady drumming. Amidst chants of “rain, rain” echoing between the figures on stage, one might forget that this is only a play.

But is it?

A whirl of top hats, hard hats, cell phones and dancing sewer pipes might suggest otherwise. Booming announcements followed by uproarious applause, monsters made of plastic bottles, and the little bags of popcorn provided for each audience member should make it clear.

Beneath The Surface, the most recent mainstage performance at In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in south Minneapolis, was not “just” anything.

The performance, themed after a big top circus, was the second episode in a performance trilogy entitled Invigorate the Common Well.

The aim of the trilogy is, among other things, to promote awareness of our local water system and the idea that water is a shared resource. Additionally, it encourages people to be grateful for water, which Heart of the Beast Artistic Director Sandy Spieler refers to as “a precious gift.”

Although this is a serious subject, Beneath The Surface does not portray it strictly in that way. While there were moments when the singsong delivery made the production seem torn between artistic expression and communicating a message, the end product was harmonious

A recent showing gathered a crowd, half of whom were children who laughed and clapped while unwittingly learning the intricacies of the water cycle and the Minneapolis sewer pipe system.

In addition to the play, small workshops afterward educated attendees about agriculture, industry, the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone, and how water plays a crucial part in all of these things.

Watching water travel from a cloud through a series of human induced pollutants makes human impact on natural resources so blatant that it is almost hard to watch. But this is not even the half of it.

Since 1992, World Water Day has been held on March 22 in order to increase awareness of the water crisis that plagues countries worldwide. What crisis you ask? Currently 2 billion people lack access to safe water, and over 2.5 billion are without sanitation, according to the Human Development Report for 2006.

Despite daunting figures like this, and unfortunately many others, Heart of the Beast is working towards big goals with small, determined steps. Among the list of the initiatives for the Invigorate the Common Well series is to, “Connect our local drinking water experience with the large issues facing global water quality, consumption, conservation, and ownership,”

The third episode in the series will be a dedication ceremony for the theater’s new drinking fountain. The all-day family festival will take place on Saturday, July 26, and will feature live music, performances, and art activities. In the meantime, Heart of the Beast has dedicated a portion of its website to water resources. These can be found at http://hobt.org/mainstage/invigorate/resources.html.

“I found something in the river!” a cast member cried. And when the rest ask him what it was, he responded, his eyes wide with amazement: “A new way of thinking.” And hopefully, he is not the only one.

The photos are the toughest part to get through. Reading about the German eugenics movement in the early part of the 20th century is one thing; seeing the visual documentation of the experiments and plans to eradicate those with unfit genes is another.

Through May 4, the Science Museum of Minnesota is hosting an exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race tells the story of the Nazi eugenics movement of the 1930s and 1940s.

Meticulously recorded and collected, photos of the subjects of Nazi medical experimentation reveal the astonishing dehumanization of the eugenics movement. The victims, many of them children, stare blankly back at the viewer, stripped of their humanity and reduced to a series of measurements, classifications, and ultimately – a strand of DNA deemed unfit to reproduce itself in society.

It is medicine at its most perverse and twisted, sacrificing the lives of the helpless for the supposed betterment of society. It is the study of genetics taken to an obsessed extreme, using unproven assumptions to justify the importance of an individual’s family tree over anything else. In other words, it is science at its absolute worst – and simultaneously not science at all.

“It deals with very challenging subject matter – the misuse of science,” says Joanne Jones-Rizzi, the Science Museum’s Program Director for Peoples and Cultures and the project leader for Deadly Medicine. “It looks at the eugenics movement from 1933 to 1944, which was not limited to Germany; there was a eugenics movement in the U.S. as well.”

Through a collection of artifacts, photography, and video footage of survivor testimony and eyewitness accounts, the exhibit explores the Holocaust’s roots in the Nazi conviction that “inferior” races and individuals must be eliminated from German society so that the “fittest” could survive. In collaboration with anthropologists, geneticists and doctors, Nazi leadership used science to help legitimize persecution, murder, and ultimately genocide in pursuit of building a superior Germany.

Deadly Medicine also covers American reactions to eugenics concepts and early eugenics projects in Germany. Shockingly, the reception of these ideas in the U.S. varied immensely and some groups were very receptive to the Nazi strategies for solving societal problems. “I think that’s an important lesson to be learned,” Jones-Rizza says.

To achieve a racially pure society, the Nazis first sought to eliminate the physically and mentally impaired. Many of those euthanized were children. Later, Jews and Gypsies were targeted for destruction. As time passed, their focus shifted from managing a population through sterilization to completely eliminating people they considered to be biological threats.

“This is the worst-case scenario,” Jones-Rizza says. “People ask, ‘how can that happen?’ and it’s an example of how something seemingly quite benign can go unquestioned and things can get out of hand.”

For a museum that Minnesotans more typically associate with child-friendly hands-on experiments, Deadly Medicine is a significant shift in tone compared to most of the permanent exhibits, which is unsurprising given the extreme gravity of the subject matter. However, Jones-Rizza says, it may not be such a departure for the Science Museum after all.

“I think people tend to think of the Science Museum as a place to have fun and learn too,” she says. “But we feel we can also have more serious exhibitions. We want to present topics that encourage thought, reflection, and discourse. It’s a very thought-provoking exhibit and, in a sense, follows in the footsteps of the RACE: Are We So Different? exhibit that was here last year,” she says.

Ultimately, the goal is to encourage discussion and dialogue among attendants, which is furthered by a lecture series in connection with the exhibit.

“I think there’s a lot of entry points and levels of interest,” Jones-Rizza says. “We try to bring additional voices who could offer perspectives on the topic of eugenics and how it extends beyond that specific time period.”

Thus far, the reception has been positive, she says. The exhibit is crowded with people who read every bit of information and silently try to comprehend the scientific motivations behind such inhumane behavior. Frequently, the only sounds are those of parents quietly trying to explain the subject matter to their children.

“I’ve recommended that parents preview the exhibit and we have an advisory outside of it, but parents should decide for themselves [if the exhibit is appropriate for their children],” she says.

Deadly Medicine is organized and circulated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, presented locally in partnership with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, whose director, the late Dr. Steve Feinstein, was instrumental in getting the exhibit to Minnesota. Dr. Feinstein passed away just last week, but his work on this exhibit is evident to those he worked with.

“The exhibit is here because of Steve Feinstein,” Jones-Rizza says. “Steve had always wanted to bring the exhibit here. He became very interested in it and started pursuing it.”

Eventually it was determined that the Science Museum might be a better home for the exhibit than the U – especially because of the greater space available there – and the collaboration began. “Steve reached out to us and it became a collaborative effort,” Jones-Rizza says. “But I think it’s important to credit Steve with having the vision to bring it here.”

Deadly Medicine will run daily through May 4, 2008. Admission is included in regular Science Museum exhibit gallery admission ($11 for adults, $8.50 for kids ages 4 to 12 and seniors). Combination exhibit gallery/Omnitheater admission is also available. A free audio tour of the exhibition is available for download to an MP3 player at www.smm.org/deadlymedicine, as well as accessible by cell phone.

Tomato soup is a great addition to sandwiches of all sorts, especially grilled cheese. Instead of buying individual cans of soup, a large jug of V8 can become a delicious and cheap alternative.

Buy a large bottle of tomato juice,

Pour a good amount into a pot and heat,

Add a cube of beef bouillon if desired,

Squeeze in a lemon and garnish with parsley.

The main modifier here is the addition of lemon, which totally rad-ifies the flavor. Serve the soup with a grilled sandwich of your choice and enjoy (grilled cheese and avocado is my personal favorite.)

An estimated 2,500 people in Minnesota are living with the HIV disease and do not know they have been infected.

In 2006, 318 new cases of HIV were reported in Minnesota, a five percent increase from the previous year.

Eighteen percent of these cases were reported among young people between the ages of 13 and 24.

A new case of the HIV disease is reported in Minnesota about every 27 hours.

These facts all come from the 2006 Profile of the HIV Epidemic from the MN AIDS Project, the most current look into virus data until the 2007 profile is published in April.

While these numbers may seem daunting or even frightening, they are not infallible. In fact, thanks to two assistant professors at the University of Minnesota, new fundamental discoveries are being made that may one day help lead to new treatments.

Dr. Reuben Harris and Dr. Hiroshi Matsuo, who both work in the department of biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics, have recently solved the structure of a protein that is able to inhibit the AIDS virus HIV.

Their work began nearly three years ago “simply because we did not have an atomic picture of the DNA mutating protein with which we work — the human APOBEC3G DNA cytosine deaminase,” said Harris.

Working with a team of full-time researchers, the two used a technique called “nuclear magnetic resonance” to capture an image of APOBEC3G. Not only were they successful, but also the image was the first picture of any enzyme in its class.

While complementary studies have obtained genetic details about the protein “an atomic level understanding was lacking until we revealed the structure of the catalytic domain of APOBEC3G,” Matsuo says.

But this discovery is only one important piece of a much larger puzzle. Unfortunately, many prior studies have shown that a particular HIV protein, the virion infectivity factor, attacks APOBEC3G before it is able to deactivate the virus.

“This structural information will be therefore used by us and others to develop new therapeutic methods that protect APOBEC3G from Vif,” Matsuo says.

“The easiest to imagine will be a small molecule that only binds Vif, no other proteins within our bodies, and stops it from ‘seeing’ APOBEC3G,” Harris says.

But what really makes APOBEC3G so interesting? It is inside of all of us right now, Harris says.

“The most important concept to understand is that all people have this potent virus mutating enzyme, but it is normally degraded by the [Vif],” he says. “It is really a molecular war and we are working hard to help our protein win.”

While HIV is currently treatable using anti-retroviral therapy, a combination of three drugs, it is still without a cure. However, both Harris and Matsuo are confident that their work will contribute to the discovery of novel treatments.

“Many, many people including my team are working very hard to take fundamental discoveries and knowledge toward the development of novel and potentially better treatments,” Harris says.
Matsuo is also optimistic about virus treatment and predicts major changes for the near future.

“We expect to find low-molecular weight drug-like compounds that stop APOBEC3G degradation within three years,” Matsuo says. “Hopefully, these compounds will be turned into good drugs within an additional five years.”

While this discovery is monumental, as the doctors move closer to creating new drugs they may face even more complications.

Not only is the team in competition with dozens of institutions worldwide, according to Harris, but they may also have changes in patent law to worry about.

In a recent editorial in the Star Tribune titled “Threat To Invention,” Sally C. Pipes suggests that innovators may be less inclined to pursue their big ideas, especially those developing new drugs.

Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, says that the Patent Reform Act would make it more difficult for inventors to obtain a patent, and more difficult to protect their work, even after obtaining a patent.

The act would require applicants to publish their ideas for up to 18 months before they know whether or not they have been granted a patent. This, Pipes argues, would allow others to view and potentially copy inventions.

Additionally, inventors would only receive patent protection for the particular elements of the invention that they created and not anything they improved or changed from an existing idea.

While these issues may be waiting somewhere in the future, right now Harris and Matsuo are focusing on the good things. Matsuo humbly stressed the support they received from their department on this project, and Harris, who recently returned from a curling tournament, was just as modest.

“We work very hard, but we are also having fun,” Harris says.

Nalgene water bottles are a fun, fashionable way to carry water and other potables, keeping students happy and hydrated. In the past few years, Nalgenes have become so popular that it is impossible to walk fifty feet across campus without seeing a plethora of shatter resistant plastic water bottles. Now, after this widespread distribution we are realizing that everyone and their brother drinking out of these things may not be such a great idea.

One of the key building blocks of Lexan, the rigid, clear, shatter-resistant polycarbonate plastic that Nalgene bottles are made of, is a compound called bisphenol-A. This compound mimics estrogen and is known as an endocrine disruptor, binding to estrogen receptors, causing alterations in hormone levels and interactions. It is also linked to miscarriage, altered mammary gland development, early onset of puberty, prostate cancer, breast cancer, altered brain development, reduced fertility, and insulin resistance leading to diabetes. Although they mostly become apparent in adulthood, these health affects have been traced back to exposure to bisphenol-A in the womb and during early childhood. Bisphenol-A is also a component of the resin used to line nearly all canned foods and drinks and some water supply pipes.

As the water bottles age and are repeatedly heated and put through the dishwasher, bisphenol-A has been shown to leach out into whatever is stored in the container, and has also been shown to migrate into canned foods. Exposure to bisphenol-A is so common that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 95 percent of Americans have it in their urine. It can be viewed as perfectly safe or as a serious health risk, depending on who you talk to.

“Most of what we’ve heard is that the human tolerance level is way high compared to what’s actually going to leach out,” says Will Rettig, who works in the water bottle section of Midwest Mountaineering on the West Bank. “The only way that it’s really going to leach out a lot is if you sick it in the microwave.”

The manufacturer of Nalgene water bottles and other members of the plastics industry maintain that the level of bisphenol-A people are exposed to is not high enough to produce adverse health effects. In August 2007, an expert panel published a consensus statement in the journal Reproductive Toxicology stating the levels of bisphenol-A exposure within the typical range for people living in developed countries have been shown to have adverse health effects on laboratory animals, indicating that similar effects are also occurring in humans. That same month, a panel of scientists from the US National Toxicology Program’s Center for Environmental Risks to Humans deemed their level of concern for reproductive effects of bisphenol-A in adults to be ‘negligible’ and exposure in the womb and during early childhood development only of ‘some concern.’

Like most chemicals that we consume daily, the problem with bisphenol-A is that we do not really know much about what happens when we put it into our bodies. The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which put a system in place to regulate chemicals such as bisphenol-A, has never been updated. Under this law companies are not required to test chemicals for safety or track whether they end up in people’s bodies or the environment at unsafe levels. The Environmental Protection Agency set the safe exposure level for bisphenol-A in 1993 based on studies done in the 1980s. Additionally, the FDA has not performed a toxicology study to determine the Acceptable Daily Intake for bisphenol-A.

“Since World War Two they’ve developed 80,000 chemicals, and since World War Two they’ve banned five of them. In Europe they’ve banned 30,000. So we’re a little behind on the times,” says Maria Trafton, the head of Minnesota Public Interest Research Group’s Detox Minnesota Task Force. “People assume that the government is regulating their products and that what they’re putting into their bodies are safe. If America is going to trust our government to make sure that we’re safe, then we should be able to trust them. They’ve said that they need to test these chemicals, but they haven’t, and they’ve been lagging.”

With the federal government dragging its feet, MPIRG and similar groups throughout the country have taken the matter into their own hands. In cooperation with Steering Committee of the Healthy Legacy Coalition, MPIRG recently passed a resolution through the Minneapolis City Council agreeing to a phase out of products for children under three containing bisphenol-A. MPIRG is currently lobbying for a similar phase out which is being considered in the Minnesota Congress.

“That doesn’t mean from Nalgenes, that means from products that come in contact with children under three,” says Trafton. “We’re starting at a lower level just to get people aware of the issue because no one really knows about it. Obviously all of this takes forever, and there’s no way that we can ban 80,000 chemicals. So hopefully what this will do is raise awareness that there are these chemicals and we don’t know what they do and they’re untested.”

Bisphenol-A remains an FDA approved material for use in food containers. Ultimately, more research is needed to determine whether the level of bisphenol-A we are exposed to when we drink from Lexan water bottles and eat canned foods is enough to cause harm in adults. Until such a consensus is reached, cross your fingers and hope for the best because it’s probably already in your pee.

Art Vs. Science

Read the article here.

Art. Science.

These are two words that may seem to be hanging out on opposite sides of the room. Science is a tool for progress based on structure, rules and repeatable results. Art on the other hand takes structure and renders it unrecognizable; twisting rules and exploring the antipodes of expression and meaning. At times they almost seem like unrelated opposites. Many may ask what they have to do with each other. Lately the two have been necking in the corner and many people hope that they go farther. Because they have so much to offer each other. When art and science do hook up, it usually happens away from the crowds.

Up in the attic the little box beeps and boops wildly to the rhythm of tiny particles while different colored lights dance on the walls.

“This file is data from our Barium radioactive source,” says School of Physics and Astronomy Professor Prisca Cushman. “It is what we use to calibrate the detectors.”

In front of her is a wooden box with the dimensions of a milk crate, except a little shorter, sitting on a stack of orange books. Five metal cylinders slightly more narrow than soda cans and about a foot tall each rise out of the box. On each cylinder there is a clear plastic discs about the size of your palm. The whole thing stands no higher than your knee and altogether looks like a model for an apartment complex from the future. This is the Dark Matter Music Box:

Each one of the discs has four differently colored LEDs (light-emitting diode) inside of it: red, blue, yellow and white. Every time a note is produced, the corresponding LED is lit. A light in one of the top discs corresponds to a lower note while a light in the lower discs corresponds to a higher note. When Professor Cushman plays a file, the result is a symphony of synthesized chimes, voices and instruments with a corresponding light show.

The first piece comes out as a hectic smattering of instruments, voices, and lights; not a real distinct rhythm, but a constant barrage of notes. It’s very erratic and wild. The box emits these sounds and sights based on data received by an apparatus called a Cryogenic Dark Matter Search Detector which is kept at near absolute zero temperatures half a mile underground in the Soudan Underground Mine in Northern Minnesota.

The first file is from a calibration test, which means that the researchers themselves “sprayed” the sensors with particles generated by the researchers from a radioactive source.

Deep in the mine where the detector sits, tiny particles like photons and muons are being measured as they smash into the sensors. There, Professor Cushman and physicists from ten different universities, including her lab partner Erik Ramberg are waiting for proof of dark matter to strike the sensor from the heavens above.

Cushman and Ramberg are waiting for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, known as WIMPS, to strike the sensors. These are the theoretical particles which, if measured, would help many physicists sleep a little easier by helping to verify the existence of dark matter. The whole idea of having the sensors deep in the mine, and covered by shielding, is to keep un-wanted particles out so that only the WIMPS can make it through. No one has ever measured one of these particles. The researchers in the mine haven’t seen one yet in the two years they have been looking, but as Professor Cushman says, “We haven’t seen one better than any one else.”

Professor Cushman offers to play another file. She says it is a file created entirely from data without a radioactive source nearby. This piece has a much slower pace. The only particles producing sounds are produced by sub-atomic decay within the shielding. This sub-atomic decay happens all over the universe all the time. Long pauses linger between the hits which sometimes come alone and sometimes in clusters. Soaking in the sights and sounds of the music box, an observer might or might not realize that the music coming out of that box is the music of the cosmos.

To artistically interpret these sounds of the universe, the music box produces a different sound and light depending on the energy, location and type of particles striking the detector. This means that to the properly informed ears and eyes, each sound and light tells you which sensor is hit, how hard each particle hits the sensors and sometimes, what kind of particle it is. Where does an idea like this come from?

“It was really a very collaborative process,” says Professor Cushman.

The brother of a fellow researcher had the idea. Karl Ramberg, a musician and sculptor, was visiting his brother in the mine for a week. He intended to compose a piece based on the physics research in the mine.

“I have always been inspired by the work [my brother] does” Karl says.

Karl Ramberg was hoping to use the piece for a grant and thought that “searching for dark matter in the bottom of an abandoned mine, they would at least look at my proposal… that was when I got the idea to make an instrument that would be triggered by the events that the detector recorded,” he said. During the time that Ramberg was developing a prototype of the instrument he found a program called Artwonk to translate the data into sound. He brought the prototype to his brother and Professor Cushman who decided how the sounds would reflect the particles’ properties

“It turns out that there is a whole genre of music of this nature that I had no clue about,” says Ramberg. “It’s called the sonification of data.” I think that’s a pretty cool idea.

The average person can’t really imagine how a muon travels, or what the size and weight of an electron is compared to the larger and heavier neutron. Someone can say that particles are flying about all the time, but it is difficult to perceive. Those words don’t register in any way that resonates even though particle physics affects the world that we live in.

Sounds are created by decaying particles, the ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bup from the music box is a muon traveling through all the sensors, an electron is quiet because it is so small and light. Through music, a universal human love, these concepts can become something tangible for people.

Instead of explaining some abstract construction of reality with formulas and jargon, an explanation through an artistic creation like the music box becomes an experience of reality in itself. Art presents information in a way that grabs attention. Suddenly, an observer is aware that tiny little objects are flying around and through them right now. Right Now. RIGHT NOW.

As scientific inquiry explores more complex and abstract fields of knowledge, the result can often be too removed from people’s everyday to warrant their concern.

Common models of scientific topics, on the other hand, have been criticized for being oversimplified. Jonah Lahrer points out in Seed magazine, a scientific bi-monthly, that the reductionist approach to science often leaves us with no better, and even some times a more perplexed understanding of our day-to-day existence. He uses the example of neuroscience.

“[Neuro]scientists have reduced our sensations to a set of discrete circuits. And yet, despite this vast material knowledge, we remain strangely ignorant of what our matter creates.”

Human beings have used art to convey emotions and ideas for tens of thousands of years. Why not apply this concept to convey or even advance scientific ideas? Art can have a very visceral and felt effect on our lives. It can elicit strong feelings from us and also give us insight into how we experience existence. Both science and art are ways of understanding, but art is simply a little better at speaking the languageof everyday life.

When you look at a good drawing of a woman’s face, the pencil lines on the paper are no more the woman than the pencil lines of a mathematicians equations of her dimensions are. They both try to represent what we perceive; the pencil drawing just does it in a way that makes more people go, “Damn.”

Of course science has always been a huge help to art as well. Just think of an art medium that you love and try to imagine it without the technologies involved. This is true for everything from cameras to paint.

If you’d like to get a further grasp on this concept, there are plenty of places around the Twin Cities campus you can go explore. The Bell museum has had beautifully painted dioramas up for decades depicting various environmental scenes. Right now it is also hosting an exhibit on climate change that touts collaborations between art and science.

Professor Cushman is trying to get the music box placed into the Science Museum in St. Paul so perhaps in the near future the music box will be there for you to see and hear .

See the Dark Matter Music Box Now!

A special thanks to Professor Cushman and Karl Ramberg for their help.

Society perceives scientists and artists as mutually exclusive, polar opposites. Artists are right brained, left leaning,free spirits while scientists are logical, analytical, left brainers.. Conventional wisdom says that scientists do not make art and artists do not do science. In However, one only has to look at Bohr’s model of the atom, inspired by Cubism, or the highly controversial Body Worlds exhibit to realize that art and science have more in common than meets the eye.

“There has been a trend recently of a lot of art which responds to current science,” says Chanai Matteson, the organizer of the Bell Museum’s Cafe Scientifique. The intersection of art and science will be the topic for an upcoming Café Scientifique discussion on March 11 at the Kitty Cat Klub, entitled “Is Art the Future of Science?”

“It’s about what art can tell us about science, and also about what science can tell us about art,” Matteson says.
Local artist Matthew Bakkom, who does cross medium research based projects, is one of two artists in the Twin Cities who will be leading the discussion. “Artist and scientists share a common ground, they always have,” Bakkom says. “The poets and the scientist come from the same place.”

Although they may come from the same place, the paths art and science have taken into our minds are very different.

“Both art and science are aligned with production, and science and art are both social practices. But as they’ve evolved, there’s been an increase in specialization and concentration. Especially in universities, they’ve been separated into discrete areas,” Bakkom says. “Artists have been relegated to basically becoming decorators and designers, serving the elite. Science is serving a more general sense of production…the results are more direct and on the table, whether it be food or medicine or jet propulsion.”

Lynn Fellman, the other speaker takes it even further. “There’s a lot that we have in common: an artist’s temperament and a scientist’s temperament, especially for creativity and imagination and living in a world of ideas,” She says. “There’s a lot that we share there.”

Inspired by the human genome project, Fellman began creating DNA portraits. “[The idea] evolved gradually as I started to do a lot more reading about science and particularly about genetics. As I started to develop my imagery, I ended up focusing on a portrait idea. It’s intriguing to me because there’s such nice history in the art world…many artists will do portraits. So this to me was sort of a really interesting way to have a new take on this sort of traditional scene that artists work with.”

For $650—$1800 Fellman will incorporate your unique DNA sequence into a portrait describing your ancestral journey out of Africa. Fellman’s entirely unique incorporation of genetics into her art led her to be the first artist ever invited to attend the American Society of Human Genetics Conference in San Diego last October. “It was wonderful. [The scientists] were interested, they were excited. There were a number of scientists who said, ‘Well it’s about time. We wanted someone like you here.’”

Fellman wonders where the separation between art and science originated. “I think it’s a holdout from the industrial revolution, and maybe even as far back as Descartes. I think we’re just recovering from that. I think it’s just old information that I think is going to be turned around pretty quickly here in the next decade. The sci-art trend [is] getting a lot more attention. It pops up in the media with more frequency..”

So is art the future of science? Both Fellman and Bakkom are unsure. “How the artist connects with culture is a little bit different than how a scientist does,” says Fellman. “I interpret science and I give it my own personal voice…Science is driving huge changes in who we are as human beings, so my piece is more sort of the cultural piece. I’m not quite the initiator of these things, I’m responding to science.”

Bakkom also thinks it unlikely. “But it is possible that some of the most important developments of the next few decades will depend on a combination of the two,” he says. “The card the artists hold is that we know about imagination and innovation. That’s the card that is also crucial for the breakthroughs in the sciences – how we understand the world in potentially new ways comes from a creative perspective on a specific situation or material,” says Bakkom.

The Café Scientifique discussion on the intersection of art and science will be held on Tuesday, March 11 at 6 pm at the Kitty Kat Klub in Dinky Town. The event is free, but a $5 donation is suggested. For more information about Café Scientifique, and to view a schedule of future events, go to http://www.bellmuseum.org/prog_cafescientifique.htm.

Using Harlin’s story as a frame, the film explores the relationship between the Swiss Alps and the people who live in their shadow. Harlin grew up in the village of Leysin, where his father founded the International School of Mountaineering. As a boy, Harlin III observed the relationship between the Alps and the residents of the region. The people had adapted to the environment, developing agricultural techniques according to the steep landscape. Climate expert Professor Bruno Messerli talks on film about the people of the Alps and how they coexist with the natural world without destroying it, an idea which is repeated elsewhere in the film.

Snow-covered peaks jut upwards into the startlingly blue sky. Ice and rocks tumble down from their jagged summits. Scattered below are the quaint houses and churches of the different villages built into the slope of the mountains. “The Alps”, an IMAX film at the Science Museum of Minnesota, immerses the viewer in this stunning and dangerous world, one in which humans have struggled to coexist.

Directed by Stephen Judson, narrated by Michael Gambon, and featuring music by Queen, “The Alps” focuses on American mountain climber John Harlin III. His father, John Harlin II, was killed while attempting to scale the Eiger, the Alps’ most treacherous peak, in 1966. Almost forty years later, the younger Harlin took on the same climb.

Inhabitants of the Alps must also contend with the mountains’ dangers. Avalanches threaten villagers and climbers constantly. Interviewed in the film is avalanche expert Christine Pielmeier, a doctor of geology who works for the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. The institute studies the formation and properties of avalanches and publishes a twice-daily avalanche warning bulletin for the Swiss Alps. The filmmakers captured intense footage that includes a shot of snow roaring head-on and enveloping the camera.

Mountain climbing, which is said to have originated in the Alps, is central to life in the area. The elder Harlin successfully climbed the Eiger’s North Face in 1962, becoming the first American mountaineer to do so. Four years later, when his son was nine, he fell to his death while attempting a more direct route to the summit. The film reconstructs the ill-fated climb in a flashback sequence. A similar reenactment depicts explorer Edward Whymper’s climb to the top of the Matterhorn, another famous Alps peak. Whymper and his men became the first to reach the Matterhorn’s summit in 1865, but the climb ended tragically when four of the men fell to their deaths on the descent.

The film’s look at the Alps reaches far beyond the human interaction with them. As John Harlin III explains the natural history of the mountains to his young daughter, accompanying graphics help viewers understand how plate tectonics and Ice Age glaciers created the peaks. The Alps arose as a result of the prehistoric collision between the African and European tectonic plates. Pressure on the sediments of the ocean between the landmasses formed giant rock folds that pushed up to form the mountains. During five ice ages, glacier erosion carved at the rock to create the sharp ridges and peaks seen today.

The most climactic part of the film, of course, centers on Harlin’s climb. Experienced Swiss climbers Robert and Daniela Jasper join Harlin III in this expedition, and as they train for the climb, Harlin III explains that he and the Jaspers want to “get a sixth sense about each other,” developing the absolute trust necessary for being harnessed together on a dangerous rock face. While climbing, Daniela Jasper says that it is scary and also inspiring to reach places on the mountain where previous climbers have died, feeling them beside you as you push past another obstacle. The filmmakers used helicopters and other equipment to get close to the climbers and capture footage of each step of the 13,000-foot vertical journey, including a few gasp-worthy slips and scares. “The Alps” provides a vantage point that is otherwise inaccessible to most viewers, and all from the comfort of a seat in the Omnitheater. As the snow outsides starts to melt away, those who miss the white fluffy stuff can trek over to the Science Museum and go for a virtual clime.

The film is showing daily through June 12. For more information please visit: http://www.smm.org/

During the polar bear’s approximate 200 thousand years on Earth, they have been called many things — from vicious killer to fuzzy, adorable, Coke-guzzling marketing technique. The Inuit call polar bears Nanook, meaning master of all bears, and considered them wise, powerful, and close to human. Early Arctic explorers viewed polar bears as fearless marauders, killing as many as possible and eliminating them from several regions in the Arctic. As of the printing of this article, however, one thing they have not been called is endangered. In January, Congress was supposed to reach a decision on whether to protect Alaska’s polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. The decision was delayed, causing many to cry conspiracy. As the Fish and Wildlife Service was delaying the decision to protect polar bears, the Mineral Management Service announced its final decision to sell leases for oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast, a major bear habitat.

Regardless of their status as an endangered species, polar bears are in trouble. In September the United States Geological Survey released a comprehensive report on the status of polar bears, predicting that by 2050, two thirds of the world’s polar bear population will be gone as a result of habitat loss and the melting of sea ice due to global warming. This means the species could be extinct by the end of the century. While some bear experts are claiming that this prediction is overly grim, others say that depletion of the polar bears’ population could happen much sooner.

“[The study] was based on a very, very conservative model,” Robert Buchanan, the president of Polar Bears International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to polar bear conservation says. “Over the past summer, the rate of ice lost increased ten fold. Where we thought the ice was going to be in 2035 is where it was this past summer.”

Because they spend so much time on the ice, polar bears are classified as marine mammals. Their scientific name Ursus maritimus literally translates to “sea bear.” The seasonal sea ice in the Arctic is a crucial hunting ground and habitat for polar bears. The bears depend on the ice flows to hunt ringed seals, their primary source of food. Scientists have been recording sea ice loss every year since 1978, although, as Buchanan said, ice loss has rapidly increased in rate. Each year, the ice arrives later and melts earlier, leaving bears less time to hunt and build up fat stores for the summer which they spend fasting on land.

According the USGS, the fate of the polar bear is largely sealed (no pun intended). Even a drastic reduction of carbon emissions will not prevent the rapid shrinking of the sea ice. Buchanan, however, remains optimistic.

“Is it irreversible now?” he asks. “No. Will it become irreversible? Yes. We’ve got about 10 to 15 years. Our best shot [at saving the polar bears] is to find geographic pockets where the species can survive.” He says that there are four things that the average person can do to help polar bears: plant a lot of trees, recycle and, more importantly, buy recycled goods, conserve energy, and encourage industry to find innovative solutions.

PBI’s slogan is “Conservation through research and education,” and with that in mind the organization has teamed up with 35 zoos and aquariums from around the country in a campaign to educate and raise awareness about polar bears and Arctic conservation. In partnership with PBI, the Como Zoo in St. Paul is building a new, state of the art polar bear exhibit. Scheduled to open in 2010, the $14 million Polar Bear Odyssey will replace the zoo’s current polar bear exhibit, which consists mostly of cement, with a habitat nearly four times the size of the original. The exhibit is designed to mimic the bear’s natural environment, and will give them the opportunity to pursue natural behaviors such as digging, swimming, foraging, and hunting.

The importance of the plight of the polar bear goes deeper than the conservation of a single species. Polar bears have become the mascot for global warming awareness initiatives because they are the dead canary in the coal mine of global climate change, an indicator of the health of the entire Arctic ecosystem, foreshadowing what is to come for the rest of the world.

“[Polar bears] are a sentinel species, and what that means is if you lose a key species like that, it’s a warning sign that other species are in serious trouble,” says Buchanan. “It doesn’t matter if we caused it, what matters is that it’s our job to fix it.”

Although it is still as cold as a witch’s teat in Minnesota every winter, the climate is changing (no joke). But when most people in the Upper Midwest hear discussion on climate change, they usually think of how it will effect the rest world, not how it will influence little ole Minnesota.

“Paradise Lost: Climate Change in the North Woods,” an exhibit at the Bell Museum of Natural History that runs through April 11, hopes to change that mindset. What makes this exhibit unique from others about climate change is how it brings together the two totally different worlds of art and science.

The project was created at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by Dolly Ledin at the Center for Biology Education, and David Mladenoff at Forestry Ecology and Management. Ledin says the idea to combine art and science came from one of her colleagues, who is an artist and a biologist.

One of the goals of bringing art and science together, according to Ledin, is to show how important the issue of climate change is to the northern environment. She says she hopes art will help people see through the scientific jargon and see how climate change will affect the Upper Midwest.

“It’s one that is very difficult for people to understand,” Ledin says. “Art might have an ability to reach people in a way science alone could not.”

Once the exhibit idea was conceived, a call for artists who wanted to be involved with environmental issues was sent out. According to Ledin, over 100 artists applied to be in the project. A jury then narrowed it down to just 20.

After the 20 artists were chosen, the artists and scientists invaded each other’s realms for a three day workshop. First, Ledin explains, the scientists gave a few formal presentations about climate change. Then the artists and scientists did field studies, such as identifying trees, and discussed why some trees are more vulnerable to climate change than others. The groups also went to a bog and collected soil samples. They visited a lake and a river and discussed how water systems are affected by climate change.

Once the artists got down and dirty with the science portion, it was the scientist’s turn to make art. The scientists showed their hidden creative talents by creating ice sculptures, installation art in the forests and bogs, and talked about the way art can increase public awareness on the issues.

The hope was that both groups could reach an understanding of each other’s craft. Ledin says the organizers wanted the artists to know the facts scientists know about climate change, as well as how the scientists came to their conclusions.

“People think of science as just a collection of facts,” Ledin says. “We really wanted them to not only know the information, but learn what science is sort of about.”

Ledin says they also hoped that scientists can see how powerful art can be when it has a message.

Photo by Angie Myhre

“We wanted the scientists to understand what artists do and how they think, to experience what art could do to communicate,” Ledin explains.

Prior to the workshop both groups were a little apprehensive to journey into each other’s domain. Ledin says, the artists feared they would not understand the science behind climate change, while the scientists were worried that the artists might have trouble understanding what they were doing, as well as what the artists’ goals were. Luckily, there was a fairy tale ending.

“Both [groups] were scared to death,” Ledin says. “I feel like they really gained a mutual respect for each other’s talents and skills and really gai