Understanding Science Acceptance and Rejection

I was reading the news and came across the headlines about the 7 words the administration banned for use by the CDC.    As a scientist I could not believe any of those words are banned, but my mouth hung open a little bit as I scanned the list and saw "science-based" and "evidence-based" on there. 

So of course I had to wear my Science shirt and show my support of science.   Then as it happened I was at the gym listening to "The Skeptics Guide to the Universe" podcast when they referenced a paper on understanding Science Acceptance and Rejection.   I dug the paper out and it was quite interesting and I thought worth sharing especially as this nation seems to be taking a step backwards on the science front in some cases.


SCIENCE FTW!

On one side of the spectrum we all have doubts or questions about many topics especially when it is something we are seeing for the first time or have little personal experience with.   On the other side of the coin we have science as a methodology to answer those questions and either confirm or deny our doubts.    But the question is why do these doubts stay with some of us no matter what  anybody says while others are willing to change their minds based on sound scientific results.  In other words Why do some people readily accept science and other's reject it?  It is a good question and one that in my opinion is relevant.   STEM jobs continue to grow (10. 5% from 2009 - 2015) and will we need our younger generations ready to step into these jobs in the future.  If you are interested in more STEM job info for the US this is nice resource. 

US Bureau of Labor STEM info

So if we are looking at a trend of more STEM type jobs being added and needed, it is important to understand why people do or not believe in science.  A group of scientists decided to answer this tough question and published a nice article on the subject.

The journal article can be found here:  http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167217741314

It is quite long and detailed so I am going to try and give the cliff notes. 

THE CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS 

When looking at the science acceptance or rejection question, the authors picked several controversial scientific topics to understand why people agree or disagree with the science on each topic.


1.  Climate Skepticism 

We hear lots of chatter on this one with the two sides firmly entrenched.  One side says climate change is real and things are going to get worse if we don't take some measures soon.  The other side does not believe climate change is real and that we are just in a natural pattern.

2.  Vaccine Skepticism

Vaccines are another hot topic with the "anti-vaxxers" saying vaccines cause other problems like autism even though the science says otherwise.   Some parents say that no one should be able to make them vaccinate their kids.  On the flip side we have seen outbreaks endangering other people at places like Walt Disney World from these decisions.  There is also plenty of science available showing vaccines are a good.

3.  GM skepticism

This one is a daily conversation for me since my job is all about making GMOs.   The biggest concern to the people who do not accept GMOs revolves around their belief that GMOs are unsafe.  On the science side there are more studies than you could read in a day to support their safety.

4.  Science Support 

Science Support has been in the news lately as well.  The march for science was a big even to support science, but there are just as people who think science conflicts with their personal beliefs.


THE PREDICTORS -  TRUST vs DISTRUST OF SCIENCE

The overall findings of the paper linked each of these topics to WHY people do not accept or believe in them.   The parameter they looked at to understand science denial or acceptance were:

1.   Political conservatism

One thing they say never bring up in a conversation is politics, but it can play a big factor in what we believe.  This paper was focused on a US population. 

2.  Religion 

Well the saying actually goes don't talk about politics or religion and here we are bringing both into the equation.  However there are times science and religion seem to conflict with other and so it is no surprise that religion can play a large role in peoples trust or distrust of science.

3.  Morals 

Our morals and values are who we are.   Those values are embedded in us by our life experiences and beliefs.   Morals speak strongly to our consciousness of what is right and wrong.  These do not easily change and thus it also makes sense these influence what we believe and how we process information.

4.  Faith in science 

Is the scientific method inherently a good system you can trust. 

5.  Scientific literacy 

Science is a word most people have heard, but understanding what it is saying can be challenge.  It may be we don't understand what the science is saying because we don't want to hear it, we don't believe it, we haven't taken the time to study it, or we just have not been informed due to lack of communication or availability.

THE RESULTS

A lot of work went into the below graph, but this is the summary of all the work.

What does this mean?   The interesting thing is that even though science attempts to explain every controversial topic here,  the topics can be quite unique in the predictors that determine whether we believe the science or not. 

There are several conclusions we can draw:

1.  Climate skepticism -   Where we fall on the climate debate is almost completely explained by our political attachment.  Usually the more conservative a person is the higher the predictor for climate skepticism.

2.  Vaccine skepticism - The best predictor of whether someone believes in vaccines is their religiosity.   However other factors also help predict including faith in science (which can also be predicted by religiosity), morals , and scientific literacy.

3.  GM skepticism -  Scientific literacy and faith in science is a big predictor of GMO support or not.

4.  Support of Science - The biggest predictor in whether someone supports science or not is their religiosity.   One interesting finding is that men have more faith in science than women.

All of this mean science acceptance and rejection is a complicated topic.   As the authors state, "different forms of science acceptance and rejection have different ideological roots, although the case could be made that these are generally grounded in conservatism."

PERSONAL VIEWS AND GOING FORWARD

I personally really like this study and find some positives and frustrations.  On the subject of climate change which I do personally believe in, it seems that politics will continue to drive or not drive peoples thoughts and actions on climate decisions.   The study is pretty spot on with what we are truly seeing play out with the current US administration not believing in climate change.   This is the type of headlines we see in today's news under the current administration (NY times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/climate/epa-climate-change.html

However this topic will bounce back and forth depending on the political side in charge.  This one is a bit frustrating in that according to the results scientific literacy is not a driver of scientific acceptance and so education is not really going to have a huge impact on changing minds.

The good news is that GMO skepticism is highly predicted by scientific literacy.  The more someone understands the science, the more they are willing they are to understand and adopt GMOs.   This means that outreach by scientists, universities, governments,  industries,  and consumers on the benefits and safety of GMOs can have an impact.   The science on GMOs is beautiful, but unfortunately people are not getting the information.  This study highlights the need to tackle this topic head on through education.  We have to keep educating and answering questions.   I have numerous posts on GMOs on this blog if anyone reading this has questions and am always happy to answer or find the answer to any question someone wants to ask.  As always a great resource is  https://gmoanswers.com/ 

Religiosity is the biggest predictor of vaccine skepticism.  I personally do not understand the reluctance to vaccinate because by not doing so puts not just one person in jeopardy but all the people around you.  This is a topic that can have a lot of consequences for others.   And I have this stance as  a religious person.   From a Christian point of view Scripture is silent on vaccinations and so we must make our own informed decision.   I personally believe the science on this one and will vaccinate myself and my kids. 

Lastly support of science is also highly predicted by religiosity.   As I mentioned I am religious and I personally co-exist with a strong belief in science.   Because I am a scientist I agree that there are conflicts of interest between science and religion.   However I have never found that the two cannot co-exist for me.    I and friends have had friendly debates on this topic so many times and my argument continues to be that science and religion are answering different questions.   Religion is answering fundamental existence questions that science cannot (at least yet) about the universe such what is my purpose?  who am I?  how should I live and treat others?   what happens when I die?  Science is answering questions about the processes and properties of the universe to make our day to day lives better.   They both are useful in my life. 

 I can only hope that all sides see the benefits of science.   No matter your religious or political affiliation I hope we all see the good that science can do in our world.  Science is not just an opinion, but a systematic method to to answer a question.

Setting up a saltwater fish tank - PART 2: Equipment

In part of one of my saltwater blog (Part 1), I went over the basics of getting a tank on the stand and the plumbing that goes along with it.   Before we fill it up with water there is some equipment you will want.

The following list are the products I used.  The brands are by no means the ones you should use, but will give an idea of the types of things you will need to get.

SUMP ITEMS

 There are a lot of items you will want in your sump.

1.  Heater

For a saltwater and reef aquarium you will need to maintain the water temperature.  I have my heaters in the sump so they are hidden and not in the main display.   My main heater is a 400 Watt Titanium Aquarium Heater by Aquatop for a 125 gallon tank.   I also have a small 100 W Titanium Aquarium Heater in the sump.  If my main heater were to malfunction I have a backup to hold over until I can get it fixed.  I like these titanium heaters because they are long lasting.  There are a lot of opinions on the temperature you should keep your tank and a lot of it depends on the fish and coral you will have.   I keep my temperature at 79 degrees F.  No matter what temperature you chose as your main temperature, stability is the key.  You do not want the water temperature to deviate too much through the day.

2.  Skimmer

In my opinion a skimmer is one of the most important things to have in your aquarium.   A skimmer is a piece of equipment that keeps your water clean.   Here is how a skimmer works.

I think a skimmer is very important and actually went a little bigger than needed.  There are many skimmer brands and you can research the one that will fit your sump.  I chose to go with a Reef Octopus 202-S model.  The  biggest consideration in picking out a skimmer is to make sure it will fit in your sump since a skimmer can take up a good bit of room.  I placed the skimmer in the water drain section of the sump so that water coming down from the main aquarium will get skimmed before being pumped back up to the main tank.

The reef Ocotpus model I used is rated for 265 gallons and I have only a 125 gallon tank.  I personally prefer to go a little big on the skimmer because it plays such an important part in keeping your water clean.  Here is what the model looks like.   

To operate a skimmer you plug it up and use the knob to adjust the water level.  For this skimmer you turn the red know and water level rises towards the collection cup.  The water will be full of bubbles and I take the bubble line about half an inch from the top of the collection cup.   It will be personal preference on example where you want you water level to be depending on if you want a light or thick skimmate. 

3.  Return pump

As your water drains to the sump and gets skimmed it moves through the sump and gets pumped back up to the main tank.   You will need a pump to to get the water back up.   I started with a generic outdoor fountain/ fish pond pump.   It only lasted 2 months before the motor played out.   I needed to replace it quickly and after doing a little research I decided on a Jebao pump.   The particular pump I chose was the Jebao DCT-8000.  The rate or flow of water draining down in your sump depends on the flow of water going back into the main display.   You want a  good bit of turnover so be sure the pump you chose can push enough water up to maintain a good flow.  Remember the higher you have to push water up, the lower your flow rate will be for the pump.  

I again went a little bit bigger than I really needed too, but I wanted to have a pump that had power.  The nice thing about this pump is it has a controller to adjust how much water it is pushing.  I run this pump in a 125 gallon at half power.

4.  Reactor

When I first started my aquarium I did not have a reactor and I do not think this is something you need at the very start.    However I am a firm believer that you will eventually want this once your tank is established.   As your tank matures there are certain chemicals that build up.  One of these is phosphates.  As phosphates build up, they are fuel for algea.  I ended up with a bad algea problem at one point and figured out it was high phosphates.  A reactor can be used to help control phosphates.  You add a procuct called GFO that binds phosphates.  Your reactor has a small pump that pumps water through a column of GFO at a very low flow rate.  I have a dual reactor which means one column has GFO for phosphate binding and the other reactor has carbon.  The carbon helps with any smells and keeps the water clear.   I have the reactor right in the middle of the sump.  A small pump pumps water through the GFO column, where it then goes throguh the carbon column and finally flows back into the sump.   I change the GFO and carbon every 2-3 weeks.  It is a very efficenit system to keep phosphates in check and I recommend setting on up 

There is a nice site called bulk reef supply and it has a dual reactor kit that also includes all tubing and the pump.  There are alternative reactors, but this kit includes everything you need including all tubing.  I haven't found a more user friendly setup if you want convenience.

The GFO and carbon can be found at this site or your local fish store as well.  

5.  Autofill

Evaporation is your enemy with a fish tank.  I do not have a lid on my tank so that I have better oxygenation and so my lights have better penetration.  however this means I get a lot of evaporation.  the good news is that salt stays in the tank and only water is leaving.   so when topping off the water you will use freshwater.   Because you have a sump the water level in your main tank will stay constant.  The water in your sump will go down each day depending on the evaporation in your house and this changes in winter vs summer and low humidity vs high humidity.   I mark the level of water in my sump and always keep the water at this level.   You can manually add water each day to back to the line, but the easiest way is to automate this step.  I use SMART ATO (Intelligent Aquarium Automation) by Autoaqua which is just a small sensor and pump.  The sensor goes in your sump at the water line where you want to maintain.  The pump I put in a separate 10 gallon aquarium full of freshwater.  As the sensor picks up that the water is low it tells the pump to add water.  This keeps the water line constant throughout the day with you have to do anything except keeps the small freshwater supply filled up.  10 gallons of freshwater lasts me about a week.

Here is the magnetic sensor right at the water line you want to maintain.  Once it senses water below the line, it will pump water into your sump to fill it back up.  

  

6.   Filter Sock

As water drains into your sump from your main tank, it is preferable that the water is filtered.  This is just another way to help maintain good water conditions.  The filter is a type of mechanical filtration that catches a lot of the big stuff like algae or chunks of food.   The filter is called a filter sock and is where you send your draining water.  I try to replace this sock once a week although sometimes I get lazy and only replace it every two weeks.

The next picture shows my drain lines going into the filter sock.  The black piece is a filter sock holder that has two holes already made for the tubing.  It just hangs on the side of your sump and holds the filter sock in place.  This is another great addition.  

Here are the all the supplies put together in the sump. 

And here is the bigger view where you also see the second tank holding the top off water.

MAIN TANK ITEMS

1.  Circulation pumps

In the main tank the main piece of equipment you will have are your circulation pumps.   The ocean is constantly moving with currents and your aquarium should be no different.  There are so many circulation pumps out there.  If you want some really fancy pumps then look up the vortech pumps.   I chose two Hydor pumps rated at 1350 gph (gallons per hour).  So far these pumps have handled the work load well.

Here is the pump in action.

2.  Lights

The other huge piece of equipment you will need are your lights.   This may be one of the hardest decisions to make.   If you are going to have coral you need good lights.   The golden standard of lights for years for reef aquariums were metal halides.  The downsides of them is they are expensive and they run very hot!   So you have to have good cooling.  They also use a lot of electricity.  You still cannot go wrong with metal halids, but with the introduction of LEDs you can have a cooler and cheaper option.   I decided to go with LEDs.  Once you make the decision of metal halides vs LEDs, then you have to figure out what LEDs you want.  Once you start looking at your options you will see two categories.  There are some name brand LED systems that are very high quality but with a high price tag.   some names are Radion or Kessil.   then there are your "Chinese Black Boxes".   these are cheaper LEDs manufactured for cheaper, but sometimes quality can be suspect.   I did go the Chines black box route, but chose what i think is one of the higher quality companies offering them.  I used SB Reef Lights for my lights.  You can see how many "boxes" you need based on your tank size at their site.

https://sbreeflights.com/

Lights are something you do not need for the first few weeks that you get your tank up and going, but you will want these in place and working before we get to the point you add fish and coral. 

Here are the lights hanging and in action:

3.  Netting

I chose not to have lids on my tank.  Some people like a lid as it helps limit evaporation.   The other downfall of not having a lid is that many saltwater fish are jumpers.  Therefore I recommend a net of some type to help prevent you from losing any fish.  This is not something you need to do immediately.  We still have a bit of time before we add our fish.

The kit I used was a DIY netting kit form Bulk Reef Supply.  They have kits for rim and rimless tanks.  It took about 30 minutes to put it together for my tank.

Here is what it looks like once you put the pieces together:

Next time we will talk about getting your water, rock and sand set up and cycling your tank.   Almost there! 

Science for Kids: Chromatography and Precipitates

I love when I get a chance to show off science at a school or organization.  When it comes to finding these engaging activities the internet can always be a great source of inspiration.  But as often happens I rely on the awesome people I work with for ideas and activities.    I can't even put into words how working with such inspiring colleagues makes STEM outreach so fun and exciting.

I say all of this because I was invited to go by Davis Drive Middle School in Cary, NC to work with a chemistry club.   I was looking for a new activity since these kids had already seen most of the activities I had in the toolbox.   I was talking to two people I work with and just like that we had two projects ready to go.

Home Chromatography

The first thanks for this activity goes to Marie.   Marie has developed a great exercise to teach chromatography while also introducing some basic practice in pipetting.

The kids received a basic intro into chromatography.

Before the we actually did the chromatography exercise the kids needed to know how to pipette only 3 ul onto the chromatography filter paper.   So we had some food coloring and pipettes for everyone to practice using a pipette.

Here were the pipettes they got to practice with.

In groups they practiced setting the pipettes to the right aliquot setting and pipette food coloring on a practice sheet.  The sheets they were practicing with looked like this:

And the practice in action:

After had pipetting down, we moved on to doing the chromatography exercise.  Each group had blue, yellow, and red food coloring and the then two tubes of a mix of colors (mystery tubes).  There task was to see what colors were in the mystery tubes using chromatography. 

In this exercise, salt water (mobile phase) would move the food coloring up through the filter paper  (stationary phase) and the colors would separate. 

Here the kids got super excited to see the filter papers get added to the salt water.

The results were beautiful!

The summary of all the above exercises are:

Precipitates


After we finished the pipetting activity,  Jun talked about precipitates.  When you mix two chemicals sometimes a precipitate will form.  Jun worked out a simple experiment for the students to try it out.

We mixed Calcium Chloride with Baking Soda.  This causes a reaction in which salt, carbon dioxide, and water are formed as well as calcium carbonate.  Calcium carbonate is basically chalk.   So once the mixture was mixed there were bubbles forming which was the carbon dioxide and a lot of white stuff which is the calcium carbonate.

Here is the procedure as well as the reaction.

Thanks Davis Drive for having us!

2017 FFA Convention: Meet the next generation of leaders and Agvocates

There are some days where we can all use a little inspiration and even hope in our lives.   I look at the headlines and I see war, wild fires, natural disasters, and a whole host of things that make us all worry about the future.   Well I got a transfusion of inspiration and hope at the yearly FFA convention held in Indianapolis, Indiana.   I knew of the FFA (Future Farmer's of America) when I was in high school, but it was an organization I never joined.  However over the course of 3 days I have come see that organization is a force to be reckoned with as it prepares and builds leaders not only for agriculture, but for all aspects of life. 

As I came down the escalator at the airport there was a big sign welcoming the FFA.   This was my hint as to how big this conference was going to be.  The motto for this year is "I CAN, I WLL" which I absolutely love. 

The FFA literally takes over the downtown of Indianapolis for a few days.  Everywhere you look you see blue jackets.    On the back of those jackets is the state along with the high school, county, or other local area each student is from.   I was fascinated all week on studying the backs of hundreds of jackets to see how far and wide the FFA, and our US farms are spread.  Actually all the states and territories were represented at the conference except the US Virgin Islands.   My colleague and I got into a competition to get autographs from all the states.  I lost since she got every single signature (Next time Brittany!).   But I met someone from almost everywhere as well.

I was at the FFA to represent Bayer CropScience with an awesome team.  We had a beautiful booth surrounded by so many other brands.  Tractor Supply company was right beside us doing karaoke and dancing all week so we also had a lively spot.  Carhartt and Wrangler were also right beside us.   And of course Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow and many others were all representing their businesses and showing these future leaders the types of opportunities available for them.

Besides sharing general information about Bayer CropScience we focused on information about bee health.  We also wanted to share how important it is to Agvocate about agriculture in general.  We had a huge Agvocate wall for FFA members to help us fill up.   There were 5 "hands" and each person that visited our booth could choose 1 to throw on the board.  The choices were

MENTOR -  You love to teach!
LISTEN -  You are a great listener!
JOIN - You join communities to share and talk about agriculture!
SHARE - You use all the social media outlets like Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter to Agvocate!
PROVIDE - You use political channels like writing your local government officials to Agvocate!

On day 1 our wall was starting to fill up and when we left on the final day the wall looked awesome.  The trends that showed up were we have lots of Mentors, Sharers, and Listeners.   There was a much smaller group of the FFA that were posting about the political route to talk about how to agvocate and illicit change within agriculture.   I found this intriguing.  From conversations there seemed to be a level of distrust among this generation of the government, but all the more reason to get involved.

Other companies were sharing the same messages about being an Agvocate.  And there were people (future leaders and farmers no less) talking about how good GMOs.   What a refreshing environment to be in!

Through the course of the week, I spoke to so many kids.   They were so engaged and well mannered.  We are talking about over 50,000 kids in Indianapolis and NOT ONCE did a FFA member come through not tell me thank-you or use yes sir.  This is how I was brought up in rural America and I could only smile and feel pride that this tradition of kindness and manners still survives throughout all of America.

As I talked to so many kids I would get involved in so many great conversations.  I asked a few of the visiting FFA kids if they would mind sharing their impact statement or what inspires them.   Here are just a few snippets of the type of leaders we have coming to help lead this country in agriculture and other parts of our society. 


Doster Harper

"I plan to research beekeeping efforts to increase the sustainability of our environment and the world"

By the way at the very end of the conference Doster visited the booth again.  He said his adviser asked each member of his group to go back and get a picture with their favorite booth.  Doster, thanks a lot for making my day when you visited me again!

Allie Julian

"I had an amazing ag teacher and she made all the difference.  She told me I had potential and I believed her!"

Zach Jacobs

"I want to be the voice for farming on capitol Hill and help bring a positive view to agriculture."

By the way, GO HOKIES! Zach!

Graceyn Newland

"An impact I would like to make on agriculture is educating the public about the industry and the people supporting it through social media.  As the reporter of my (FFA) chapter, it is my passion to use the up coming scene of social media for educational purposes.  Social media is the new way to reach and audience and I would love move than anything to seize the opportunity and make a difference to ensure the stability of agriculture as we progress.

Shane Stubblefield

"An impact I would like to make is to close the information gap between producers and consumers to create a better understanding of agriculture and its crucial role in feeding the world."

Dalton Beasley

I would like to alter crop genes to where pesticides are obsolete."

Bailey Morell

"I want to start a career in Ag law in order to promote the Ag industry from a positive perspective and from someone who has a personal tie to the ag industry."

Zannah Tyndau

"Coming from an agricultural family and growing up on my family's farm, I have seen the importance of agricultural advocacy.  I aspire to become a lawyer to voice my opinion in government and stand up for those who work to food on my plate 3 times a day.  I will have an impact on ag by advocating for agriculturalists in government and politics."

Makenzie Snyder

"I've grown up on a farm and seeing our family transition to GMO crops, the impact has been immense.  I've spent so much time looking into GMO processes and impacts on the world.   I want to be part of that impact, making more and more food for our growing world.  I am a strong advocate for GMOs and everything involved."

Aleyana Boothe

"I would like to research and communicate what I learn about things happening in the environment.  I believe that the knowledge is power so if I can teach and make people aware of anything then they can use what they learned to educate others.  I would like to use education and use technology to impact the future of agriculture. 

Grace Holzer

"I hope to communicate to and educate the public about the agriculture industry.  I will do so by utilizing social media and the tools of broadcasting.   My goal is to teach them about the past, present, and future of Ag!"

Lynnsey Winchell

"I hope to bring passion back to the industry.  Many times we are caught up in the money and the politics.  Remember why we continue and why we continue regardless of the struggles, both mental and physical.  We love what we do,  so remember it is worth it.  Stay strong to your beliefs and in the beliefs in the society we live in today.  For I believe that American agriculture can and will hold true because of the passion we hold in our hearts. 

I cannot even begin to describe how impressed I was with the FFA and it members.  This includes the advisers who took the time to help get these kids to their destination.  In the majority of cases large groups were driving.  This was routinely a 6-14 hours drive.   The organization is a really a student led and it was running better and more organized than some bushiness I have seen.  I will forever cherish my time at this convention and the conversations I had with these kids and my other Bayer Colleagues.  I can't wait to try and touch base years from now and see where they are.