Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum A Primeval Tide of Toxins

"The fireweed began each spring as tufts of hairy growth and spread across the seafloor fast enough to cover a football field in an hour.

When fishermen touched it, their skin broke out in searing welts. Their lips blistered and peeled. Their eyes burned and swelled shut. Water that splashed from their nets spread the inflammation to their legs and torsos."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-ocean30jul30,0,2100795.story?coll=la-home-headlines

All that from a little blue-green bacteria. Imagine that.

This is a long one but well worth the read.

http://www.merckbiosciences.co.uk/product/print/440230
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanotoxin

How can anything that thrives in raw sewage and has a reproductive rate sufficient to cover a football field within hours not be an Enviro-whiner darling? Think of it as a cross between zebra mussel, kudzu, and poison ivy. It has success written all over it! Better than Caulerpa toxifolia even.

BTW, the nickname for anatoxin-A is "very fast death factor,"

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/antx/antx.htm

very interesting links there. a whole load of cyano bacteria toxins to choose from. I feel a murder mystery coming on, with the victim poisoned by cyano bacteria toxins. This could have some potential...

that could be an interesting whodunit

Thank you Amaranth. You continually bring real science to this forum and make it worth spending time here, unlike others here who seem to think that petty name calling passes for serious science these days.

Sorry to say it but I'm finding the constant bickering between Dan and Dehammer, for example, has lost its entertainment value and has become tiresome.

Dan - you're better than this - why do you allow yourself to get dragged down to that level?

Blacknad.

...And Uncle Al. For goodness sake, can't you be a little more positive. You only seem to post when you have something to beat down. What use is having a brain the size of a planet if you're reduced to calling people 'Git' with it?

Blacknad.

Very interesting article and scary - reminds me a little of Michael Chrichton's 'grey goo'. I'm sure the American military could find a use for this stuff.

Blacknad.

Put a smile on your face there Blacknad. Rose has reposted the forum rules and I've promised to abide by them (perish the thought).

Which, unfortunately, prevents me from writing what I think the American military is likely doing with that 'gray goo'. ;-)

Cheers Dan.

I hope you don't take my comments in the wrong way - since you're one of my favourite guys here. I know it's a difficult call - there are people here with little scientific knowledge who seem to think they can post with authority and I can see why you need to correct them. It's a question of balance though, because often in engaging with them you give them a platform to spout more rubbish. Also, visitors probably come here and just see lots of posts along the lines of 'You're wrong', 'No YOU'RE Wrong', 'NO!! YOU NEED TO READ A BOOK AND GET AN EDUCATION'.

For many of us with an interest in learning about science, but who live outside the scientific community, our only contact with scientist types may be in places like SAGG. I always had this romantic view of scientists as wise and venerable people who were our best hope for sorting out some of the major issues we face. That view has taken a bit of a dent since being at SAGG, when I have seen some displays of behaviour that rival that of the lowest of the low...politicians. Now of course that's an unfair parallel to draw but there's a point to it. There is a war of sorts between science and ignorance and it is important for our futures that science wins out. Places like SAGG are not insignificant in that battle and it is important that visitors (I would like to see the hit rate for this site) see it as a place where there is a calm and measured exploration of the issues that matter, undertaken by people who have enough intelligence to rise above the usual childishness of human interaction.

In short, I think that with intelligence and the blessings of a good education comes responsibility to the rest of us cognitively challenged types. This is not best discharged with words like 'Git'.

Trolls and idiots will be the perenial problem of public sites like SAGG. That's the democracy of the internet - every fool with fingers can offer their two cents worth.

I really hope the moderators will take seriously their promise to cut insults and rubbish from the forum. This should extend to all nonsense and they shouldn't be overly worried about coming over all Big Brotherly. It IS their forum after all, and they can choose the rules. When everyone is given equal opportunity to have their say regardless of qualification to speak, then we end up with 'Dumming Down'. The moderators should prevent that from happening here. I know this would mean that some of the stuff I post would be relegated to the Black Hole of Nonscience, but that's okay.

I probably have no right to, but I feel strongly about SAGG. It has impacted the way I think about things and changed my level of awareness of the issues we are facing. I would love to see it reach a higher standard of scientific discourse.

That will probably require that people like me forego posting at all, but there you go.

Blacknad.