Archive for July 2009
By Andrew McGlashen
Environmental Health News
July 22, 2009
Eat right and exercise, conventional wisdom has it, if you want to avoid joining the diabetes epidemic.
But a new study adds some muscle to a growing body of research suggesting those steps, although beneficial, might not be enough for people exposed to chemicals in the environment.
The scientists linked diabetes and people’s body burdens of DDE, a chemical produced as the body breaks down the pesticide DDT, banned in the United States more than
Editors note: Congress is considering a $475 million appropriation for Great Lakes cleanup. This story is part of an occasional look at proposals for how to spend it. Is this an appropriate use of these funds? Weigh in on this and other ideas or suggest your own on Echo’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative forum. Other stories.
By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 21, 2009
Getting buried in the sand at the beach is a childhood rite-of-passage that could have negative consequences.
Children could also be playing with bacteria and viruses that can lead …
By Andy McGlashen
amcglashen@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
July 20, 2009
One night shortly after Michael Jackson’s death last month, as mourners’ stereos pulsed with Billie Jean and Beat It, Emily Mugerian was on a craggy island in Lake Superior, training her ears to an unfamiliar note.
“I heard the wolves one night,” said a beaming Mugerian, a pre-med senior at Michigan State University.
She and 10 other students were camped on Isle Royale National Park for a weeklong outdoor philosophy course offered by MSU.
Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 17, 2009
Those looking to enjoy a meal of Great Lakes’ fish are best off going to Lake Superior, according to a recent Canadian study.
The report compared the number of fish consumption advisories for each of the Great Lakes in 2009 to the number in 2007. Lake Superior had the least restrictive advisories, said Mike Layton, author of the report by Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based nonprofit that focuses on improving health and the environment.
Consumption advisories indicate the presence of chemical contaminants in fish.
By Sarah Coefield
coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 16, 2009
The colorful cyanobacteria coating the sinkholes in Lake Huron may be ancient, but researchers are hoping they will provide new medicines for cancer and infection treatments.
Cyanobacteria produce a plethora of complex molecules. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration asked Dave Sherman to take a look at the bacteria to see if he could find any hints of medical applications.
He did.
By Sarah Coefield
Coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 15, 2009
The scientists studying the Lake Huron sinkholes know the colorful bacteria they host have a prehistoric ancestry, but a major question remains: Where did it all come from?
The purple cyanobacteria mats in the Lake Huron sinkholes resemble mats found in ice-covered Antarctic lakes. Bopi Biddanda, a research scientist with the Grand Valley State University Annis Water Resources Institute, suspects they may have a similar ancestry. This suspicion relies on a theory that microbial life is already distributed across the planet, and comes out …
By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 14, 2009
Lake Huron’s depths hide a colorful, ancient world that holds keys to the planet’s history and clues for new cancer treatments and antibiotics.
The locals in Alpena have long known about sinkholes just offshore from their northeast Michigan community. But it will take researchers several years to unravel the local diving spots’ mysteries.
The story of the Lake Huron sinkholes and their exotic ecosystems begins on a ship. While surveying shipwrecks in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 2001, Steve Ruberg and his colleagues …
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