New discovery about asthma

Everyone knows that you taste with your mouth.

Recently, scientists found out something really surprising. We can also taste bitter tastes with our lungs and airways.

These muscles relax when we taste something bitter.

That’s the opposite of what scientists thought would happen. They thought the muscles would tense up, to “warn us” that the bitter taste was poisonous.

However, when they fed some non-toxic bitter foods to mice and some humans, their airways relaxed and opened wide. Wider, in fact, than any medicine can make them open up.

This is an important discovery for people with asthma. People with asthma have trouble breathing because their airways become tight and narrow. Asthma medicine makes those airways relax and open up.

It won’t be enough for people with asthma to simply drink or eat something bitter, however. In order to get a large enough dose, those compounds would need to be inhaled.

So researchers have a lot more work to do on this discovery, to turn it into medicine for people with asthma. However, it’s a good start towards a stronger, more effective medicine.

Curriculum Connection
Do you know anyone who has asthma? Do you know of any non-medicinal remedies that work?

Primary
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).

Junior
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).

Grammar
However. However is a word that is almost either preceeded or followed by a comma. This is because “however” is a word that interupts a sentence. Today's article has two examples of this:

“It won’t be enough for people with asthma to simply drink or eat something bitter, however.”

“However, it’s a good start towards a stronger, more effective medicine.”

Extensions
When eating bitter foods, our airways widen. This is different from what scientists expected. Pretend you are a scientist. Can you think of any reason why someone’s airways would widen when eating these types of foods? If bitter foods don’t make our airways shrink, which types of foods do you think would?

"Barcode" of a beaver on CN Tower

To launch the Barcode of Life project,
the Canadian beaver's barcode was
flashed on the CN tower Saturday.
Photo: Rick Turner/iBOL

CANADA IS LEADING THE WAY IN "BARCODING" ALL ANIMALS ON EARTH

Scientists around the world are undertaking a massive project to help protect animals. And Canadians (in fact, Torontonians) are leading the way.

One day, the project will allow you to point your camera phone at an animal or a bug and a screen will pop up with the name of the species and a description of it.

It's all thanks to the "Barcode of Life" project, which is designed to protect endangered species, and track the movement of animals and bugs - and even pinpoint the sources of contaminants in food.

Every animal and insect (including humans) has DNA. DNA is a set of molecules that stores information about an individual. Everyone's DNA is unique to them. Scientists are using the DNA from animals to create "barcodes" for them, which they will then record in databases in Toronto and Guelph, Ont.

We've all seen barcodes on items - cereal, for instance - in the grocery store. Those barcodes are used by the scanner to let the grocery store know what the product is, and to track it. This barcoding project is just like that, except with animals.

Today it takes about two days and a whole lot of technology to create one barcode. But the process is getting easier and more cost effective. Scientists expect to have more than five million barcodes in the system within the next five years.

The system is already working. Recently, barcoding was used to track a mouse head that showed up in a TV dinner in Asia. They used its barcode to trace it back to a chicken farm that had exported the dinner.

Related links
International Barcode of Life website.
Wikipedia's definition of DNA.

Curriculum Connection

Primary and Junior
What do you think the information gathered from the “Barcode of Life” project will be used for?
Use stated and implied information and ideas in texts to make simple inferences and reasonable predictions (OME, Reading: 1.5).

Grammatical Feature
Parentheses: Highlight the usage of parentheses throughout the article.
“Scientists around the world are undertaking a massive project to help protect animals. And Canadians (in fact, Torontonians) are leading the way.”
“Every animal and insect (including humans) has DNA.”

Discussion Topics
The “Barcode of Life” is a project that costs a lot of money. Protecting animals is an issue that concerns everyone. So who should pay for this project? Why do you think so?

Alaskan walruses in danger

WALRUS CROWDING IN ALASKA

Walruses in Alaska are coming off the ice floes and onto the shore, in the tens of thousands.

The sea ice they normally rest on has melted. On the shores of Alaska, the walruses are now packed shoulder to shoulder, for more than a kilometre.

This is very unusual behaviour for walruses, although it has happened twice before -- last year and in 2007 -- when the Arctic sea ice was at record low levels.

The U.S. government is now doing some research to figure out if walruses should be put on the endangered species list.

In the meantime, they are changing the flight patterns of planes that fly overhead, so they don't spook the walruses. And they're watching the animals to make sure they don't crush each other in their crowded condition.

Normally at this time the females would be resting on sea ice and diving down to the sea bottom for clams and worms. But since there's not enough sea ice, they're forced to stay on shore.

Scientists don't know how long the walruses will be on the shore, but they say there should be enough food for all of them.

Photo credit: The image of these Alaskan walruses was taken by an employee at NOAA, the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Oil spill - hope



Recovering birds are kept
warm and isolated in a
special trailer in the
"Ft. Jackson Oiled Wildlife
Facility in Louisiana. A gull
taken through the cleaning
process. Photo: BP.

 THE OIL SPILL MAY SOON BE CAPPED

For more than three months, more than 80 million litres of oil have gushed from a broken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company responsible, BP (British Petroleum), has tried many different things to stop the flow of oil, which is spewing into the gulf and threatening wildlife.

They tried capping the well, but the flow was too strong and the rig was too deep under the water. They even tried stuffing the well with golf balls, mud, fabric and human hair! That didn’t work.

Recently they tried using underwater “robot submarines” to cut into the broken pipe and cap it with a funnel. That may actually be working.

It’s a positive development, but it’s almost too late. First, 11 people died in the explosion on April 20 that originally damaged the oil well. And the massive amount of oil that leaked into the Gulf has already done immense damage to our ecosystem. The chemicals that BP used to help clean up the oil are themselves toxic – not only to the workers who have to do the cleaning up, but to the environment as the mixture of chemicals and oil washes up onto the shore.

U.S. President Barack Obama is furious. After all, even though the company that owns the oil well, BP, is British, the oil is washing up onto American soil. Now, beaches in Florida are starting to become covered in the oily, chemically gunk. Recently, President Obama sent a bill for $69-million to BP to cover the initial costs of responding to the spill.

Last week there were reports that BP may have known that the oil well had the potential to break. And BP’s reputation is forever tarnished; it’s likely that no one will ever forget that BP was the company that caused such a massive world-wide disaster.

Canada is sending aid to help in the clean-up efforts.

And at least two well-known celebrities have come forward to help fix the oil well. Celebrities can sometimes be helpful because not only do they tend to have a lot of money to donate, but they know a lot of people and can influence people to help out. Actor Kevin Costner has offered aid to help get the oil spill under control. And James Cameron, the Canadian director (who recently directed the movie Avatar), has volunteered to bring the scientists who helped him on the movie The Titanic to work on the oil spill. They have a lot of expertise in working underwater in very creative ways, and that’s the kind of thinking that’s needed on this project.

Related links
It’s good to get many different points of view on a news story.
Here’s what some of the online newspapers are reporting about the oil spill:
The Globe and Mail on Canada's response.
The Toronto Star.
The New York Times.
BP's corporate website.
Educators: Here you'll find an illustration of the underwater robots used by BP.

McDonald's recalls Shrek glasses

DON'T DRINK FROM THOSE GLASSES, DON-KEH!


McDonald's is recalling all of the "Shrek" glasses it sold recently, because the paint on them could make people sick.

The paint contains cadmium, which could cause long-term health effects for people who drink from the glasses. It would take a lot of cadmium to hurt someone - far more than just a few drinks - but the company wants to take no chances.

The company has sold 12 million of the glasses in the United States. People who bought the glasses can take them back to McDonald's for a full refund.

McDonald's has been promoting the new movie, "Shrek Forever After" and was selling the glasses in the US and Canada for about $2 each. The glasses feature pictures of Shrek, Princess Fiona, Donkey and Puss n' Boots.

It seems that not every McDonald's restaurant in Canada has gotten the message about the recall. Last Friday, a reporter from the Toronto Star went into a McDonald's restaurant at the Eaton Centre and was able to buy two Shrek glasses. An employee at the restaurant told the reporter that he was aware of the recall in the US but hadn't heard about one in Canada.

Links:
McDonald's corporate website, featuring the recall notice (see below).
An article in The Toronto Star, featuring pictures of the glasses.

Recall notice:
Below is the recall notice posted on McDonald's corporate website.


Shrek Glassware Recall – Customer Refund Information
Updated June 5, 2010

In collaboration with Health Canada and as a precautionary measure, McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited today issued a voluntary recall of its four Shrek Forever After™ glasses.

Customers are asked to stop using the glasses and are invited to contact our dedicated, bilingual customer service centre at 1-877-495-5502 with any questions.

Hours are:
Monday to Friday: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. EST
Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST
Sunday, June 6 only: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST

Customers can return their glasses to a McDonald’s Canada restaurant for a cash refund.

McDonald’s safety standards are among the highest in the industry and the company has a strong track record. There have been no reports of illnesses related to the use of these glasses.

The well-being of our customers is our top priority. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but product safety and quality at McDonald’s will not be compromised.