CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (V)

Obama to Introduce Sweeping New Controls on Ozone Emissions

The New York Times                                                                                                                        25/11/14

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/us/politics/obama-to-introduce-sweeping-new-controls-on-ozone-emissions.html?ref=space&_r=0

SCIENTIFIC SHIELD: Environment

SUMMARY:

The Obama administration is expected to release on Wednesday a contentious and long-delayed environmental regulation to curb emissions of ozone.

The regulation would aim at smog from power plants and factories across the country, particularly in the Midwest.

Public health groups have lobbied the government for years to rein in ozone emissions and said the regulation was one of the most important health decisions Mr. Obama could make in his second term.

But industry groups say that the regulation would impose unwieldy burdens on the economy, with little public health benefit.

CRITICAL APPRAISAL:

Is good to seeing the Obama's government worrying about the environment. It means that thing are changing, that we are building a new world without pollution. Even though it have taken too much time beginning this ozone regulation.

 The measures are taken will be a good example that what the other countries have to do, pollute less.

GLOSSARY:

Ozone:  Is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula OO2.   Is a powerful oxidant (far more so than dioxygen) and has many industrial and consumer applications related to oxidation. This same high oxidizing potential, however, causes ozone to damage mucous and respiratory tissues in animals, and also tissues in plants, above concentrations of about 100 ppb. This makes ozone a potent respiratory hazard and pollutant near ground level. 

Smog: Smog is a type of air pollutant. Modern smog, as found for example in Los Angeles, is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog. 

Power plants:  power station (also referred to as a generating station, power plant, powerhouse or generating plant) is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power.At the center of nearly all power stations is a generator, a rotating machine that converts mechanical power into electrical power by creating relative motion between a magnetic field and a conductor.

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (V), by Marina Dorca

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (V), by Marina Dorca

News' title: Can soft drinks speed aging?

Date of publication: 25^th of November, 2014

Source of information: Student Society for Science:

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/can-soft-drinks-speed-aging

Scientific field: Biology (biomedicine)

Extract:

This article talks about an study which investigates the damage soft drinks can cause. They've found out that it fattens, and that it can boost the risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart and liver disease,...).

The study started with an hypothesis that shorter telomeres raise a person's risk fpr such diseases and for some cancers. Then, to check if that was true, they made a health data with different adult people (aproximately 140000). This survery concluded with the evidendce that drinking 8 ounces of soda daily added 1,9 years of cellular aging.

Soda cans

More examples of soft drinks

Critical appraisal:

In my opinion, I really value such news, as they are great information for improving our health habits. Moreover, these studies are good for warning people of the effects of eating certain foods or drinks in large quantities, and eventually making them think of changing his food habits.

On the other hand, we don't have to believe this studies 100%, as there are also other variables that aren't the subject of study but still could have influenced the results of the survey. For this reason, we have to be critical with such results, because they may not always show exactly the relation between two variables, but the result of a mix of lots of other secondary aspects. Besides, I think that multinationals that commercialize soft drinks make pressure on media because they don't want people to read this kind of news. This is because they fear that this researches, which show that soft drinks are bad for health, could decrease their revenues. I find this action egoist, because they put their economic interests ahead of the health of people.

Video:

This video shows why soft drinks are bad for you from a biological and chemical view.

 

Glossary:

carbonation The process of pumping carbon dioxide into a liquid, to imbue that liquid with bubbles. It gives the now-carbonated liquid a fizzy taste.
chromosome A single threadlike piece of coiled DNA found in a cell’s nucleus. A chromosome is generally X-shaped in animals and plants. Some segments of DNA in a chromosome are genes. Other segments of DNA in a chromosome are landing pads for proteins. The function of other segments of DNA in chromosomes is still not fully understood by scientists.
constituent An ingredient or building block of some material.
epidemiologist Like health detectives, these researchers figure out what causes a particular illness and how to limit its spread.
fructose A simple sugar that (along with glucose) makes up half of each molecule of sucrose, also known as table sugar.
liver An organ of the body of animals with backbones that performs a number of important functions. It can store fat and sugar as energy, breakdown harmful substances for excretion by the body, and secrete bile, a greenish fluid released into the gut, where it helps digest fats and neutralize acids.
nucleotides The four chemicals that link up the two strands that make up DNA. They are: A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine) and G (guanine). A links with T, and C links with G, to form DNA.
telomere A natural protective “cap” on the ends of chromosomes, made by successions of a six-nucleotide sequence of chemicals. This chemical sequence is found only on the ends of chromosomes. It’s known as TTAGGG, where each T corresponds to a molecule of thymine, each A is a molecule of adenine and each G is a molecule of guanine. Over time, telomeres shorten as the cell they’re in copies itself. If the telomere length gets too short, the cell stops dividing and dies.
variable (in experiments) A factor that can be changed, especially one allowed to change in a scientific experiment. For instance, when measuring how much insecticide it might take to kill a fly, researchers might change the dose or the age at which the insect is exposed. Both the dose and age would be variables in this experiment.