"Wine" About Climate Change

Wine is a beautiful thing when you stop to think about it. The complexities of flavors and bouquets are caused by a microbiological process. There are tannins in wine which do all sorts of silly things to proteins. Besides all the beautiful science, however, there is the flavor, the smell, the how-it-makes-you-feel of wine that we all love. Well, this wine lover just found another reason to appreciate this lovely grape libation!

In the wine's alcohol, there is a "footprint" of the amount of fossil-fuel derived carbon dioxide in the air above the vineyard! Since this is very accurate and there are so many vineyards, this is a better source of information about how much CO2 we are putting out. The CO2 reading stations are few and far between, but grapes are grown around the world. That, coupled with the fact that so many bottles are kept for so long, we have a record of fossil-fuel based CO2 dating back many years.

Not only is wine good for you because of the resveratrol, but it is a great map of the fossil fuel usage! So handy. Just don't drink any tiger wine. Not good. Wine from grapes. Good.

You can find the source article here.

Cheers!

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Cheers!

In an interesting article I stumbled across on Discovery, I learned that beer can be good for cancer. Don't run out to the bar just yet, though. It is a special beer created by scientists at Rice University. They have dubbed the beer BioBeer (hardly marketable if you ask me) and what they have done is spliced three genes in the yeast used by brew masters and made the yeast form resveratrol as a byproduct. If you don't recall, resveratrol is found in grape juice and red wine and is believed to aid in all kinds of age related illnesses based on various studies. The red wine news story is more popular than grape juice, however, because deep down inside we always want a better excuse to indulge.



The sad part of the news is many of the students responsible for the findings cannot appreciate the fruits of their labor as they are not yet old enough to drink. Oh the irony. The scientists and brew masters involved don't know yet if they can put a beneficial amount of resveratrol in the beer as of yet. Who knows though? The old toast of "to your health" seems to becoming more and more true these days.


Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

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Horrid Tiger News and Tiger Info

So in an article I found on the BBC, Researchers at 2 different animal parks in China were offered tiger wine. This is pretty much tiger, yes ferocious, growly, cute, stripy tiger, soaked in rice wine. Despite a ban on poaching and using tigers for goods, numbers are still declining. You can read more here.

Since I found this article, I will talk about tigers for a bit.

Scientific Name: Panthera tigris

This cat is the largest of the cats. There are 8 subspecies of tiger; 3 of which are already extinct. No two tigers have the same stripe pattern. They are as unique as a humans fingerprints. The last wild white tiger was seen in the 1950's. It was a cub and became the "father" of all white tigers in captivity. White tigers are usually larger at birth and adulthood, probably a genetic trait allowing better chance for survival despite their coloration. However, due to inbreeding in captivity, birth defects are emerging. They are inbred because this trait is in high demand.

Behavior
Tigers are a bit strange in that, unlike all other cats, they LOVE water and are very strong swimmers. They are also very solitary except for a mother with cubs. They are very territorial.

Reproduction
Females are only receptive for a few days and in these days mating is very heavy. Gestation is only 16 weeks and cubs are about 2 pounds when born.

There is tons of information online on how we can help save these big cats. There are only about 7,500 of them left in the wild.

A great video to watch is Kingdom of the Tiger, an IMAX film.

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Olive Oil For Your Health

In an article posted earlier today on ScienceDaily, it was revealed that there are anti-cancer components to olive oil. According to the article, good quality olive oil contains "phytochemicals" which can kill off cancer cells. The research was done to determine if Mediterranean diets were the reason breast cancer rates were lower in the region. Researchers were from the Catalan Institute of Oncology and the University of Grenada in Spain. It was found that Extra Virgin Olive Oil is best for these "phytochemicals" as the oil is extracted from pressed olives. No heat is involved therefore leaving the chemicals in tact. The oil was tested on cultured breast cancer cells and really worked; however, no testing has been done on humans and the researchers are uncertain of how it would work since the human body is more than a few cancerous cells.


In other good olive oil related science, it is just good for you. Olives have great fatty acids and good cholesterol too! Pair this with some wine high in resveratrol (and good at determining climate change) and you have one heart healthy snacking opportunity. I love food and science so this is perfect! Doesn't Alton Brown have the best job? A food scientist! Nice.

Photo is licensed under Creative Commons to Grace on Flickr.

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Sea Glass

The video I have been working on now is entitled "Sea Glass." While there is not too much science behind sea glass (except the small amount I could come up with for my 5 minute video) there is a lot of neat things to know about glass. For starters, a main component of glass is silica. Silica is commonly found on certain types of beaches. Those in Florida and along the gulf have lots of silica in the sand. Here in the VI, our sand is predominantly parrotfish poo, so we are less likely to make glass from it!

While silica is what makes glass.. well, glass, many other things are added to it to make it easier to turn into different types of glass. For example, boron is added to silica in Pyrex and lab glass. This makes the glass resistant towards heat changes. Lead is added to silica for "sparkle" and most everyday glass is soda-lime glass: a mixture of silica, sodium bicarbonate, and limestone.

Glass is believed to have come to humans around 3500 BC and since then, we have done tons of things with it. We have art, really AMAZING art, done in glass. Science labs everywhere use glass. Glass protects us from the elements, enables us to see, keeps the rain from our faces while we drive, stores our wine, and cooks our casseroles. You would be surprised how glass affects our everyday lives. There would be no light bulbs without it. No microscopes or telescopes. The glass would never be half empty or half full if it never existed!

For more about the history of glass check out this history of glass.

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For the Love of Tequila

Blue Agave & Barbed Wire
Originally uploaded by nathangibbs

As many of you may or may not know... tequila comes from a very specific region in Mexico and is made from blue agave (see photo). If it is not made in Jalisco, it is not tequila. This is similar to Champagne being a region in France and everyone else really makes sparkling wine. This is known as a geographical indication in wines and spirits. While this would make it seem like Jalisco must be loaded now, what with tequila's surge in popularity and everything, the exact opposite is happening.

NC State did some recent research pertaining to this devilish liquor. Tequila's geographical indication is a bit unfortunate because it is not sustainable ecologically or socially. The demand for tequila is much higher than it was 15 years ago and has doubled production in less than 10 years. Part of the reason they cannot keep up with the demand is that it takes 6 years for blue agave to reach a harvestable size, but recent pests and diseases are making the numbers of agave dwindle. This has lead some larger companies to plant their own agave, thus taking money out of the local economy and small agave farmers' pockets. This is the social.

It gets better (worse?). These same big companies don't hire workers to hand prune the plants for pests. They are using some serious pesticides not commonly used in this area. That is the ecological damage.

Tequila originated over 400 years ago and has been a legacy to the people in this region since then. Big business is not only destroying the land the people have cultivated the agave on for centuries, but taking their jobs as well.

You can find the source article here.

Photo is protected under Creative Commons.
Blue Agave & Barbed Wire
Originally uploaded by nathangibbs

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Migraines

For the past two days I have had a bad headache. It actually started between my shoulder blades and crept its way up on to (yes it feels "on") my head while I was sleeping. I don't really know what causes them. Everyone has different warning signs for getting one. Since it shows no sign of letting up, I felt it was an appropriate time to write about migraines. Please remember, I am not a physician and this is just a post about what causes them and is not intended to diagnose or aid in treatment. Please seek advice from a professional. (WOW, that is a lot of legal jargon!)

Now, since my headache started between my shoulders, it is very easy to assume it is a tension headache. Besides, at first, I am pretty sure that is what all of my migraines start as. However, by the end of the day, I have full-blown migraine like symptoms. WebMD includes the following as a list of symptoms:

• Moderate to severe pain (often described as pounding, throbbing pain) that can affect whole head, or can shift from one side of the head to the other
  
• Sensitivity to light, noise or odors
• Blurred vision
• Nausea or vomiting, stomach upset, abdominal pain
• Loss of appetite
• Sensations of being very warm or cold
• Paleness
• Fatigue
• Bright flashing dots or lights, blind spots, wavy or jagged lines (aura)

and a few more...

So what causes these things? Well, at the root of it, it appears to be hereditary. Four of five migraine sufferers had family members who also suffered from attacks. Mom, do you get real migraines?

Besides this, there are also certain triggers for certain people. I have enough to worry about avoiding my triggers for bipolar disorder, so I don't know if I have any. Regular exercise, eating healthy, and relaxation techniques can help with this. Believe it or not, taking medications for your headache may result in a rebound headache. Lucky for me, I hate pills.

Some of the foods that cause migraines, I hate to say, are some of my favorites. However, I will have you know that I haven't eaten anything on this list the past week.

• Red wine
• Some alcoholic beverages
• Old/aged cheese
• Processed meats
• Nitrates and nitrites in processed foods (what gives ham its pink color)

Can you believe after all of this, I still haven't found the source. What is it that happens in your head that causes this pain? I even found out that 70% of all migraine sufferers are female and 60% of those women get them before menstruation. I am a woman but am not pre-menstruation so I am at a loss. What is it? I still don't know the secret "what." I have triggers, symptoms, histories, statistics, but no answer? Do you know?

If you want to find out more, check the links above or visit WebMD's migraine and headache page.

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The Secret Life of Yeast

My husband and I were having a discussion last night about yeast. Odd topic, I know, but it wasn't without reason. I'm on antibiotics at the moment and I was trying to explain to him what thrush was and why I had to eat so much yogurt. He tried to tell me yeast was not a fungus. Ok. Maybe from a culinarian standpoint I could understand, but don't argue with biologists about this sort of thing unless you want this up on the internet the next day. Now onto the science!

What are yeasts?

Simply put, they are single celled fungi (think worlds tiniest mushroom if that helps).

Eww, gross, so they are alive?

YES! That is what makes them so useful. You see, part of what makes yeast so helpful is that it breaks down (think digestion) sugars to ethanol or carbon dioxide gas. Without yeasts, grapes wouldn't be so delicious (the white film on grapes is a yeast) or couldn't turn to wine very well, we wouldn't have yummy leavened bread, there would be no beer or (gasp!) sourdough!

Where do they come from?

Isn't that a universal question? More specifically I guess you could ask where they are found naturally. Then I could tell you that yeasts are found almost everywhere. They live on the skin of warm blooded creatures symbiotically or parasitically, they live on plant leaves and flowers and roots, they live in salt water and soils, and they live in our intestinal tracts. They are one of our closest neighbors!

Can't yeast be bad, too?

Sure, but it's all relative. Many of the "bad" yeasts are actually not harmful in normal situations. Weakened immune systems, medications and age can make it so that your bodies normal bacterial level is thrown off and you end up with various forms of yeast infections. Pretty much what is going on here is that your body has a nice system of checks and balances in place and the lack of bacteria means more room for yeast and it is more of a nuisance than anything. In some extreme cases it can cause intestinal "parasites" to use the term loosely.

Now you are all caught up on your yeast knowledge! If you have any questions, leave them in the comments... I always reply.



Photo licensed under Creative Commons and can be found:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vatsug/ / CC BY 2.0

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