1969 Santa Barbara oil spill
The Santa Barbara oil spill occurred in January and February 1969 in the Santa Barbara Channel, near the city of Santa Barbara in Southern California. It was the largest oil spill in United States waters at the time and it remains the largest oil spill to have occurred in the waters off California. The source of the spill was a blow-out on January 28,1969,6 miles from the coast on Union Oils Platform A in the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field. The spill had a significant impact on life in the Channel, killing an estimated 3,500 sea birds, as well as marine animals such as dolphins, elephant seals. An economic boom accompanied the development of the Summerland field, which transformed the spiritualist community of Summerland into an oil town in just a few years, in 1927, the discovery of oil west of Santa Barbara led to the development of Ellwood Oil Field. This caused the city to be bracketed on east and west with oil fields, the new one a bonanza, in 1929, the Mesa Oil Field was discovered within the city itself, on the blufftop adjacent to present-day Santa Barbara City College.
Residential construction in the vicinity of the Mesa field halted, as oil presented easier and faster money to the land developers, Oil derricks sprouted on the hilltop within easy view of the harbor, on narrow town lots intended originally for houses. While local protests were vocal, they failed to shut down the oil development, the oil derricks only went away when production on the small Mesa field abruptly declined and ended in the late 1930s. Nearer to the site of the oil spill, the first drilling island was built in 1958 by Richfield Oil Company, prospectors for oil sought ways to drill in deeper water. Seismic testing under the Channel began shortly after the Second World War, congress passed the Submerged Lands Act in 1953, which granted to the states all lands within 3 nautical miles of shore, known as the tidelands. However, several oil fields were found within state waters on either side of this zone. Development of these resources commenced, with the first offshore oil platform – Hazel – being built in 1957, Platform Hilda, adjacent to Hazel, was erected in 1960.
Both platforms tapped into the Summerland Offshore Oil Field, and were visible from Santa Barbara on a clear day. Platform Holly, in the portion of the Ellwood Oil Field about 15 miles west of Santa Barbara, was emplaced in 1965. Development of leases in the waters was next. This was possible because a 1965 Supreme Court decision finally settled the claims on the submerged lands outside of 3 miles limit. The first lease sale took place on December 15,1966, the rig the three companies emplaced – Platform Hogan – was the first oil platform offshore of California in Federal waters. It became operational on September 1,1967, on February 6,1968, a total of 72 leases went up for bid
Cuyahoga River
The Cuyahoga River is a river in the United States, located in Northeast Ohio, that feeds into Lake Erie. The river is famous for having been so polluted that it caught fire in 1969, the event helped to spur the environmental movement in the US. The name Cuyahoga is believed to mean crooked river from the Mohawk Indian name Cayagaga, although the Senecas called it Cuyohaga and it flows through Independence, Valley View, Cuyahoga Heights, Newburgh Heights and Cleveland to its northern terminus, emptying into Lake Erie. The Cuyahoga River and its tributaries drain 813 square miles of land in portions of six counties, the river is a relatively recent geological formation, formed by the advance and retreat of ice sheets during the last ice age. The final glacial retreat, which occurred 10, 000–12,000 years ago and this change in pattern caused the originally south-flowing Cuyahoga to flow to the north. As its newly reversed currents flowed toward Lake Erie, the river carved its way around glacial debris left by the ice sheet.
These meanderings stretched the length of the river into a 100-mile trek from its headwaters to its mouth, the depth of the river ranges from 3 to 6 ft. The Cuyahoga River, at times during the 20th century, was one of the most polluted rivers in the United States, the reach from Akron to Cleveland was devoid of fish. Downstream of the bridge to the harbor, the depth is held constant by dredging. The surface is covered with the brown oily film observed upstream as far as the Southerly Plant effluent, in addition, large quantities of black heavy oil floating in slicks, sometimes several inches thick, are observed frequently. Debris and trash are commonly caught up in these slicks forming an unsightly floating mess, anaerobic action is common as the dissolved oxygen is seldom above a fraction of a part per million. The discharge of cooling water increases the temperature by 10 to 15 °F, the velocity is negligible, and sludge accumulates on the bottom. Only the algae Oscillatoria grows along the piers above the water line, the color changes from gray-brown to rusty brown as the river proceeds downstream.
Transparency is less than 0.5 feet in this reach and this entire reach is grossly polluted. At least 13 fires have been reported on the Cuyahoga River, the largest river fire in 1952 caused over $1 million in damage to boats, a bridge, and a riverfront office building. On June 22,1969, a river fire captured the attention of Time magazine, no pictures of the 1969 fire are known to exist, as local media did not arrive on the scene until after the fire was under control. The 1969 fire caused approximately $50,000 in damage, mostly to an adjacent railroad bridge, as a result, large point sources of pollution on the Cuyahoga have received significant attention from the OEPA in recent decades. These events are referred to in Randy Newmans 1972 song Burn On, R. E. M. s 1986 song Cuyahoga, Great Lakes Brewing Company of Cleveland named its Burning River Pale Ale after the event
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles, as ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces. Energy, water and soil minerals are other essential components of an ecosystem. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun and it generally enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that captures carbon from the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and they influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, other external factors include time and potential biota. Ecosystems are dynamic entities—invariably, they are subject to disturbances and are in the process of recovering from some past disturbance.
Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can have different characteristics simply because they contain different species. The introduction of species can cause substantial shifts in ecosystem function. Internal factors not only control ecosystem processes but are controlled by them and are often subject to feedback loops. Other internal factors include disturbance and the types of species present, although humans exist and operate within ecosystems, their cumulative effects are large enough to influence external factors like climate. Biodiversity affects ecosystem function, as do the processes of disturbance, classifying ecosystems into ecologically homogeneous units is an important step towards effective ecosystem management, but there is no single, agreed-upon way to do this. The term ecosystem was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley, Tansley devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment.
He refined the term, describing it as The whole system, including not only the organism-complex, but the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment. Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units, but as mental isolates, Tansley defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope. G. Raymond Lindeman took these ideas one step further to suggest that the flow of energy through a lake was the driver of the ecosystem. Most mineral nutrients, on the hand, are recycled within ecosystems. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, external factors, called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem
Atmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other material body, that is held in place by the gravity of that body. An atmosphere is likely to be retained if the gravity it is subject to is high. The atmosphere of Earth is mostly composed of nitrogen, argon with carbon dioxide, the atmosphere helps protect living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation, solar wind and cosmic rays. Its current composition is the product of billions of years of modification of the paleoatmosphere by living organisms. The term stellar atmosphere describes the region of a star. Stars with sufficiently low temperatures may form compound molecules in their outer atmosphere, Atmospheric pressure is the force per unit area that is applied perpendicularly to a surface by the surrounding gas. It is determined by a gravitational force in combination with the total mass of a column of gas above a location. On Earth, units of air pressure are based on the recognized standard atmosphere. It is measured with a barometer, the pressure of an atmospheric gas decreases with altitude due to the diminishing mass of gas above.
The height at which the pressure from an atmosphere declines by a factor of e is called the height and is denoted by H. For such an atmosphere, the pressure declines exponentially with increasing altitude. However, atmospheres are not uniform in temperature, so the determination of the atmospheric pressure at any particular altitude is more complex. Surface gravity, the force that holds down an atmosphere, differs significantly among the planets, for example, the large gravitational force of the giant planet Jupiter is able to retain light gases such as hydrogen and helium that escape from objects with lower gravity. Thus, the distant and cold Titan and Pluto are able to retain their atmospheres despite their relatively low gravities, rogue planets, may retain thick atmospheres. Since a collection of gas molecules may be moving at a range of velocities. Lighter molecules move faster than ones with the same thermal kinetic energy. It is thought that Venus and Mars may have lost much of their water when, after being photo dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen by solar ultraviolet, Earths magnetic field helps to prevent this, as, the solar wind would greatly enhance the escape of hydrogen.
However, over the past 3 billion years Earth may have lost gases through the polar regions due to auroral activity
Natural history
Natural history is the research and study of organisms including animals and plants in their environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. It encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it, with articles nowadays more often published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the sciences, natural history is the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms. That is a broad designation in a world filled with many narrowly focused disciplines. For example, geobiology has a strong multi-disciplinary nature combining scientists, a person who studies natural history is known as a naturalist or natural historian. The English term natural history is a translation of the Latin historia naturalis and its meaning has narrowed progressively with time, while the meaning of the related term nature has widened. In antiquity, it covered essentially anything connected with nature or which used materials drawn from nature. For example, Pliny the Elders encyclopedia of this title, published circa 77 to 79 AD, covers astronomy, geography and his technology and superstition as well as animals and plants.
Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two divisions, the humanities and divinity, with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry, natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits, the astronomer, William Herschel was a natural historian. Instead of working with plants or minerals he worked with the stars and he spent his time building telescopes to see the stars and the rest of the time watching the stars. In the beginning, he believed there to be a known as a nebulae. Herschel can be considered a natural historian because he observed the natural world, in the process he made charts of all the stars and kept records of all that he saw. S. Wilcove and T. Eisner, The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior and it encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do.
Some definitions go further, focusing on observation of organisms in their environment. Bartholomew, A student of history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants. A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a component, as seen in a recent definition by H. W. Greene
Botany
Botany, called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field, the term botany comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning pasture, grass, or fodder, βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, to feed or to graze. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance and they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards. One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden and these gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, in the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately.
Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science, dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botany originated as herbalism, the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties, many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago. This early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, the early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings. His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to science until the Middle Ages. De Materia Medica was widely read for more than 1,500 years, important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyyas Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarīs the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassals The Classification of Soils.
In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner and these gardens continued the practical value of earlier physic gardens, often associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject, lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much to northern Europe, the first in England was the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621, throughout this period, botany remained firmly subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of the three German fathers of botany, along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification, physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546.
Naturalist Conrad von Gesner and herbalist John Gerard published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants, naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was considered the father of natural history, which included the study of plants
Age of Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution, some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes of the widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, a variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution, earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza.
The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, others like James Madison incorporated them into the Constitution in 1787. The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie, the ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an intellectual movement known as Romanticism. René Descartes rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking and his attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter.
His skepticism was refined by John Lockes 1690 Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his dualism was challenged by Spinozas uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics. Both lines of thought were opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines, the political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. Francis Hutcheson, a philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words. Much of what is incorporated in the method and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy.
Immanuel Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the sphere through private
Geodesy
Geodesists study geodynamical phenomena such as crustal motion and polar motion. For this they design global and national networks, using space and terrestrial techniques while relying on datums. Geodesy — from the Ancient Greek word γεωδαισία geodaisia — is primarily concerned with positioning within the temporally varying gravity field, such geodetic operations are applied to other astronomical bodies in the solar system. It is the science of measuring and understanding the earths geometric shape, orientation in space and this applies to the solid surface, the liquid surface and the Earths atmosphere. For this reason, the study of the Earths gravity field is called physical geodesy by some, the geoid is essentially the figure of the Earth abstracted from its topographical features. It is an idealized surface of sea water, the mean sea level surface in the absence of currents, air pressure variations etc. The geoid, unlike the ellipsoid, is irregular and too complicated to serve as the computational surface on which to solve geometrical problems like point positioning.
The geometrical separation between the geoid and the ellipsoid is called the geoidal undulation. It varies globally between ±110 m, when referred to the GRS80 ellipsoid, a reference ellipsoid, customarily chosen to be the same size as the geoid, is described by its semi-major axis a and flattening f. The quantity f = a − b/a, where b is the axis, is a purely geometrical one. The mechanical ellipticity of the Earth can be determined to high precision by observation of satellite orbit perturbations and its relationship with the geometrical flattening is indirect. The relationship depends on the density distribution, or, in simplest terms. The 1980 Geodetic Reference System posited a 6,378,137 m semi-major axis and this system was adopted at the XVII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. It is essentially the basis for geodetic positioning by the Global Positioning System and is in widespread use outside the geodetic community. The locations of points in space are most conveniently described by three cartesian or rectangular coordinates, X, Y and Z.
Since the advent of satellite positioning, such systems are typically geocentric. The X-axis lies within the Greenwich observatorys meridian plane, the coordinate transformation between these two systems is described to good approximation by sidereal time, which takes into account variations in the Earths axial rotation. A more accurate description takes polar motion into account, a closely monitored by geodesists
Physics
Physics is the natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion and behavior through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and force. One of the most fundamental disciplines, the main goal of physics is to understand how the universe behaves. Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines, perhaps the oldest through its inclusion of astronomy, Physics intersects with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as biophysics and quantum chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics often explain the mechanisms of other sciences while opening new avenues of research in areas such as mathematics. Physics makes significant contributions through advances in new technologies that arise from theoretical breakthroughs, the United Nations named 2005 the World Year of Physics. Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, the stars and planets were often a target of worship, believed to represent their gods. While the explanations for these phenomena were often unscientific and lacking in evidence, according to Asger Aaboe, the origins of Western astronomy can be found in Mesopotamia, and all Western efforts in the exact sciences are descended from late Babylonian astronomy.
The most notable innovations were in the field of optics and vision, which came from the works of many scientists like Ibn Sahl, Al-Kindi, Ibn al-Haytham, Al-Farisi and Avicenna. The most notable work was The Book of Optics, written by Ibn Al-Haitham, in which he was not only the first to disprove the ancient Greek idea about vision, but came up with a new theory. In the book, he was the first to study the phenomenon of the pinhole camera, many European scholars and fellow polymaths, from Robert Grosseteste and Leonardo da Vinci to René Descartes, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, were in his debt. Indeed, the influence of Ibn al-Haythams Optics ranks alongside that of Newtons work of the same title, the translation of The Book of Optics had a huge impact on Europe. From it, European scholars were able to build the devices as what Ibn al-Haytham did. From this, such important things as eyeglasses, magnifying glasses, Physics became a separate science when early modern Europeans used experimental and quantitative methods to discover what are now considered to be the laws of physics.
Newton developed calculus, the study of change, which provided new mathematical methods for solving physical problems. The discovery of new laws in thermodynamics and electromagnetics resulted from greater research efforts during the Industrial Revolution as energy needs increased, inaccuracies in classical mechanics for very small objects and very high velocities led to the development of modern physics in the 20th century. Modern physics began in the early 20th century with the work of Max Planck in quantum theory, both of these theories came about due to inaccuracies in classical mechanics in certain situations. Quantum mechanics would come to be pioneered by Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, from this early work, and work in related fields, the Standard Model of particle physics was derived. Areas of mathematics in general are important to this field, such as the study of probabilities, in many ways, physics stems from ancient Greek philosophy
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, growth, distribution and taxonomy. Modern biology is a vast and eclectic field, composed of branches and subdisciplines. However, despite the broad scope of biology, there are certain unifying concepts within it that consolidate it into single, coherent field. In general, biology recognizes the cell as the unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity. It is understood today that all organisms survive by consuming and transforming energy and by regulating their internal environment to maintain a stable, the term biology is derived from the Greek word βίος, bios and the suffix -λογία, -logia, study of. The Latin-language form of the term first appeared in 1736 when Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus used biologi in his Bibliotheca botanica, the first German use, was in a 1771 translation of Linnaeus work. In 1797, Theodor Georg August Roose used the term in the preface of a book, karl Friedrich Burdach used the term in 1800 in a more restricted sense of the study of human beings from a morphological and psychological perspective.
The science that concerns itself with these objects we will indicate by the biology or the doctrine of life. Although modern biology is a recent development, sciences related to. Natural philosophy was studied as early as the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Indian subcontinent, the origins of modern biology and its approach to the study of nature are most often traced back to ancient Greece. While the formal study of medicine back to Hippocrates, it was Aristotle who contributed most extensively to the development of biology. Especially important are his History of Animals and other works where he showed naturalist leanings, and more empirical works that focused on biological causation and the diversity of life. Aristotles successor at the Lyceum, wrote a series of books on botany that survived as the most important contribution of antiquity to the plant sciences, even into the Middle Ages. Scholars of the medieval Islamic world who wrote on biology included al-Jahiz, Al-Dīnawarī, who wrote on botany, biology began to quickly develop and grow with Anton van Leeuwenhoeks dramatic improvement of the microscope.
It was that scholars discovered spermatozoa, infusoria, investigations by Jan Swammerdam led to new interest in entomology and helped to develop the basic techniques of microscopic dissection and staining. Advances in microscopy had a impact on biological thinking. In the early 19th century, a number of biologists pointed to the importance of the cell. Thanks to the work of Robert Remak and Rudolf Virchow, meanwhile and classification became the focus of natural historians
Public health
It is concerned with threats to health based on population health analysis. The population in question can be as small as a handful of people, Public health incorporates the interdisciplinary approaches of epidemiology and health services. Environmental health, community health, behavioral health, health economics, public policy, mental health and occupational safety, the focus of public health intervention is to improve health and quality of life through prevention and treatment of disease and other physical and mental health conditions. This is done through surveillance of cases and health indicators, there is a great disparity in access to health care and public health initiatives between developed nations and developing nations. In the developing world, public health infrastructures are still forming, many diseases are preventable through simple, nonmedical methods. For example, research has shown that the act of hand washing with soap can prevent many contagious diseases. Public health communications programs, vaccination programs and distribution of condoms are examples of public health measures.
Measures such as these have contributed greatly to the health of populations, Public health plays an important role in disease prevention efforts in both the developing world and in developed countries, through local health systems and non-governmental organizations. The World Health Organization is the agency that coordinates and acts on global public health issues. Most countries have their own government public health agencies, sometimes known as ministries of health, for example, in the United States, the front line of public health initiatives are state and local health departments. In Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada is the agency responsible for public health, emergency preparedness and response. The Public health system in India is managed by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare of the government of India with state-owned health care facilities. Public health programs providing vaccinations have made strides in promoting health, including the eradication of smallpox, antibiotic resistance, known as drug resistance, was the theme of World Health Day 2011.
Although the prioritization of pressing public health issues is important, Laurie Garrett argues that there are following consequences, when foreign aid is funnelled into disease-specific programs, the importance of public health in general is disregarded. This public health problem of stovepiping is thought to create a lack of funds to other existing diseases in a given country. For example, the WHO reports that at least 220 million people suffer from diabetes. Its incidence is increasing rapidly, and it is projected that the number of diabetes deaths will double by the year 2030, the risk of type 2 diabetes is closely linked with the growing problem of obesity. The WHO’s latest estimates highlighted that globally approximately 1.5 billion adults were overweight in 2008, the United States is the leading country with 30. 6% of its population being obese
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. Carson began her career as an aquatic biologist in the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries and her widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her a U. S. National Book Award, recognition as a gifted writer, and financial security. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, and the version of her first book. This sea trilogy explores the whole of life from the shores to the depths. Late in the 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, the result was the book Silent Spring, which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of the American people. Although Silent Spring was met with opposition by chemical companies, it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy. It inspired a grassroots movement that led to the creation of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter, Rachel Carson was born on May 27,1907, on a family farm near Springdale, just up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh.
She was the daughter of Maria Frazier and Robert Warden Carson, an avid reader, she spent a lot of time exploring around her familys 65-acre farm. She began writing stories at age eight, and had her first story published at age ten. She especially enjoyed the St. Nicholas Magazine, the works of Beatrix Potter, and the novels of Gene Stratton Porter, the natural world, particularly the ocean, was the common thread of her favorite literature. Carson attended Springdales small school through tenth grade, completed school in nearby Parnassus, Pennsylvania. At the Pennsylvania College for Women, as in high school and she originally studied English, but switched her major to biology in January 1928, though she continued contributing to the schools student newspaper and literary supplement. After a summer course at the Marine Biological Laboratory, she continued her studies in zoology and genetics at Johns Hopkins in the fall of 1929. After her first year of school, Carson became a part-time student, taking an assistantship in Raymond Pearls laboratory.
After false starts with pit vipers and squirrels, she completed a project on the embryonic development of the pronephros in fish. She earned a degree in zoology in June 1932. She had intended to continue for a doctorate, but in 1934 Carson was forced to leave Johns Hopkins to search for a teaching position to help support her family
