Prescriptions for Health, the Environmental Kind
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Prescriptions for Health, the Environmental Kind 3 Using Live Fish, New Tool A Sentinel For Environmental Contamination 6 Organic Food Has No More Nutritional Value Than Food Grown With Pesticides 8 Molecular Bridge Serves As A Tether For A Cell’s Nucleus 9 A Car Ban Aimed at Carbon 11 High-Aptitude Minds: The Neurological Roots of Genius 12 Mass Extinctions And 'Rise Of Slime' Predicted For Oceans 16 In search of Western civilisation's lost classics 18 Simply Listening To Music Affects One’s Musicality 23 Pesticide Spills Common When Farmers Transfer Concentrated Liquids Into Spray Tanks 24 Onward, ye literary pilgrims 25 Probe gets close up to Enceladus 29 Rat-brain robot aids memory study 31 How DNA Repairs Can Reshape Genome, Spawn New Species 33 Novel Mechanism That Controls The Development Of Autoimmunity Discovered 35 Solar-powered Home Appliances Being Developed By Students 36 New Theory For Latest High-temperature Superconductors 38 Southern Ocean Seals Dive Deep For Climate Data 39 Trapping White Blood Cells Proves Novel Strategy Against Chronic Viral Infections 41 Built Environment Connected With Obesity In Baby Boomers 42 Overweight Hispanic Children At Significant Risk For Pre-diabetes 43 Computer Simulates Thermal Stress 45 Coated Film As A Bacteria Killer 47 Tai Chi Program Helps Prevent Falls Among Older Adults 49 Tiny Molecule Helps Control Blood-vessel Development 50 'Anti-noise' Silences Wind Turbines 52 Strange Molecule In The Sky Cleans Acid Rain, Scientists Discover 54 Clumsy young 'face obesity risk' 56 Why real and imagined disgust have the same effect 58 Signs Of Alzheimer's Disease May Be Present Decades Before Diagnosis 59 Parents Shape Whether Their Children Learn To Eat Fruits And Vegetables 60 New Group Of Plant Hormones Discovered 62 Survival Of The Fittest: Even Cancer Cells Follow The Laws Of Evolution 64 For The Birds Or For Me? Why Do Conservationists Really Help Wildlife? 66 Anything But Modest: The Mouse Continues To Contribute To Humankind 68 How Babies Understand The World Around Them And Their Place In It 69 New Evidence On Benefits Of Breast Feeding 70 New Breastfeeding Study Shows Most Moms Quit Early 71 X-rays Use Diamonds As Window To Center Of The Earth 72 Two-thirds Of Severe Sports Injuries To Female Students Due To Cheerleading 74 Students Build And Launch A Sensor Into Space 75 Arsenic-munching bacteria found 77 Legal milestone for open source 79 Call to end animal pain-research 81 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Ear infections 'link' to obesity 83 Universities: the grade 'A' problem 85 Snooze Button For Body's Circadian Clock 87 Wide Variety Of Errors Found In Testing Process At Family Medicine Clinics 89 Phoenix Microscope Takes First Image Of Martian Dust Particle 91 Towards Zero Training For Brain-computer Interfacing 93 Hard Day’s Night? Enhancing The Work-life Balance Of Shift Workers 94 Exploring Sichuan Fault 95 Solar Collector Could Change Asphalt Roads Into Renewable Energy Source 97 Microbes, By Latitudes And Altitudes, Shed New Light On Life's Diversity 99 Turning Waste Material Into Ethanol 101 Provocateur: The Peter Saul Manifesto 103 New Orleans Is Proud to Put Its Long, Complex Past on Display 106 A Not So Common Reader 109 From Spider-Man to Ayn Rand 111 An Exercise in Empathy 113 A Floating City With Junkyard Roots 115 House Proud in Historic Enclave 118 Redefining Suicide Risk — and Prevention Strategy 121 Olympic Swimmers Shattering Records In NASA-Tested Suit 122 Prototype Test For Predicting Clinical Outcome For Melanoma Patients 124 Toward Plastic Spin Transistors: Ultrafast Computers And Electronics On The Horizon? 126 Scientists Overcome Nanotechnology Hurdle 129 'Virtual Archaeologist' Reconnects Fragments Of An Ancient Civilization 131 Old Growth Giants Limited By Water-pulling Ability 134 Dying Frogs Sign Of A Biodiversity Crisis 136 Young Children's 'Theory Of Mind' Linked To Subsequent Metacognitive Development 139 Potatoes May Hold Key To Alzheimer's Treatment 140 Antarctic Climate: Short-term Spikes, Long-term Warming Linked To Tropical Pacific 142 'Bravest' students do not cheat 144 Bird flu hopes from 1918 victims 146 At School, Technology Starts to Turn a Corner 148 Art classes improve diagnostic skills of medical students 150 Green Project in B.C. Burns Sawdust, Treats Sewage in Backyard 152 Wrinkle Removers, Backed by Science 154 The Painter and the City: Parallel Tales of Growth 156 Are 4-Day Workweeks the Future? 158 A Future of Less 161 New Reasons To Avoid Grapefruit And Other Juices When Taking Certain Drugs 169 Incidence Of GERD, Colorectal Cancer Increase With Body Mass 171 Discovery Of Plant Protein Holds Promise For Biofuel Production 172 Researchers Create Stable, Highly Pure Helical Peptide Arrays 174 New 52-city Report Examines Use Of Wastewater In Urban Agriculture 176 Algae: Biofuel Of The Future? 178 2007 Hurricane Forecasts Took Blow From Winds And Dusty Air From Sahara Desert 180 Suppressing Disease-causing Genes Is Now Within Reach 182 Computer Users Are Digitizing Books Quickly And Accurately With New Method 183 Astronomers Find Unusual New Denizen Of The Solar System 185 Self-assembling Polymer Arrays Improve Data Storage Potential 187 Limbs Saved By Menstrual Blood Stem Cells 189 NASA Study Improves Ability To Predict Aerosols' Effect On Cloud Cover 190 Aboriginal Kids Can Count Without Numbers 192 New Robot Scouts Best Locations For Components Of Undersea Lab 194 Extinction Most Likely For Rare Trees In Amazon Rainforest 196 Call For Better Protection Of Older People From Climate Change Impact 197 Scientists Learn From Nature To Split Water Into Hydrogen And Oxygen 198 Why An Exciting Book Is Just As Thrilling As A Hair-raising Movie 200 2 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 34 August 2008 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Prescriptions for Health, the Environmental Kind By AMANDA SCHAFFER In a bright studio at New York University, Natalie Jeremijenko welcomes visitors to her environmental health clinic. She wears a white lab coat with a rotated red cross on the pocket. A clipboard with intake forms hangs by the door. Inside, circuit boards, respirators, light bulbs, bike helmets and books on green design clutter the high shelves. In front of a bamboo consultation desk sits a mock medicine cabinet, which turns out to be filled with power tools. Dr. Jeremijenko, an Australian artist, designer and engineer, invites members of the public to the clinic to discuss personal environmental concerns like air and water quality. Sitting at the consultation desk, she also offers them concrete remedies or “prescriptions” for change, much as a medical clinic might offer prescriptions for drugs. “It’s a widely familiar script,” said Dr. Jeremijenko, 41, who has a doctorate in engineering and is an assistant professor of visual art at N.Y.U. “People know how to ring up and make an appointment at their health clinic. But they don’t really know what to do about toxins in the air and global warming, right? “So the whole thing is how do we translate the tremendous amount of anxiety and interest in addressing major environmental issues into something concrete that people can do whose effect is measurable and significant?” Visitors to the clinic talk about an array of concerns, including contaminated land, polluted indoor air and dirty storm-water runoff. Dr. Jeremijenko typically gives them a primer on local environmental issues, especially the top polluters in their neighborhoods. Then she offers prescriptions that include an eclectic mix of green design, engineering and art — window treatments, maybe, or sunflowers, tadpoles or succulents. 3 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 34 August 2008 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila “People are frustrated by their inability to cope with environmental problems in their apartments and their neighborhoods,” said George Thurston, a professor of environmental medicine at New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Jeremijenko, he continued, “provides a service that’s needed, educating people about what they’re up against and showing them that they can do something themselves while waiting for larger societal solutions.” Dr. Jeremijenko has worked with scores of individuals and community groups since starting the clinic last fall. “I call them impatients,” she said — meaning that they don’t want to wait for legislative action. She holds daily office hours at N.Y.U., but also runs periodic off-site clinics at sites around the city — “like the M*A*S*H field offices,” she said. For instance, she met with “impatients” on the edge of the East River and took some of them out on a float made of two-liter soda bottles connected to a flexible polycarbonate sheet. Micah Roufa, who recently graduated from architectural school, was one of those present, though he said he chose to remain on solid ground. Mr. Roufa owns a vacant lot in St. Louis that is contaminated with low levels of lead. He said he wanted to remedy that problem while using the space in a creative way and raising awareness about lead poisoning in the neighborhood. Dr. Jeremijenko suggested planting a grid of sunflowers, along with a chemical agent called EDTA, to draw lead out of the soil. (EDTA is used to bind metals, making it easier for them to be taken up by plants; scientists caution that the approach requires technical care, because if too much of the chemical is added, a contaminant could migrate to neighboring property.) Mr. Roufa planted the sunflowers this summer within an artistic grid of steel bars and glass orbs. “She has been a great guide and an inspiration,” he said. Of all the concerns Dr. Jeremijenko hears about at the clinic, she said indoor air quality tops the list.