Environment / Science | 89.3 KPCC

Virus on the high seas: Human pandemic strain found in California marine mammals

Lisa Brenner with AP — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:11:14 -0700

Elephant seals on a beach along California’s central coast in San Simeon Calif. Researchers have detected swine flu in elephant seals off the Central California coast, saying it was the first time a human pandemic strain has been found in marine mammals.; Credit: Reed Saxon/AP Photo

For the first time, a human pandemic virus strain has been found in marine mammals.

The Associated Press reports that H1N1 — the devastating "swine flu" virus that killed as many as half a million people during a 2009 global outbreak — has been found in elephant seals off the central coast of California.

A University of California, Davis study published this week found the seals contracted the H1N1 virus in 2010, but show no sign of illness, reported the Contra Costa Times.

It's not the first time a marine mammal has been found carrying a human strain, UC Davis professor Tracey Goldstein told the newspaper, but it is the first time researchers found a human pandemic strain.

Goldstein said the influenza virus commonly crosses species barriers and that the presence of H1N1 in seals is not a cause for alarm. But it's a good reminder, she said, for "people who work with animals to make sure that they protect themselves."

Researchers say it's unlikely that the seals contracted the virus from direct contact with humans. Data suggests the animals were exposed at sea or coming near the shore — it's possible that seabirds may have passed on the virus.

UC Davis wildlife biologists swabbed the noses of 72 elephant seals over the course of two years at Ano Nuevo State Reserve in San Mateo County and Piedras Blancas in San Simeon. The animals were sampled before and after their annual spring foraging trip to Alaskan waters.

The animals tested clean before departure, but two came back bearing the virus in 2010, the newspaper said. A year later, 16 elephant seal pups had blood tests showing they had been exposed to the virus.

What is a pandemic?

According to OSHA:

A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. A flu pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity, and for which there is no vaccine. The disease spreads easily person-to-person, causes serious illness, and can sweep across the country and around the world in a very short time.

It is difficult to predict when the next influenza pandemic will occur or how severe it will be. Wherever and whenever a pandemic starts, everyone around the world is at risk. Countries might, through measures such as border closures and travel restrictions, delay arrival of the virus, but they cannot stop it.

California's relationship with H1N1

According to the CDC:

Infection with this new influenza A virus (then referred to as ‘swine origin influenza A virus’) was first detected in a 10-year-old patient in California on April 15, 2009, who was tested for influenza as part of a clinical study...Two days later, CDC laboratory testing confirmed a second infection with this virus in another patient, an 8-year-old living in California about 130 miles away from the first patient who was tested as part of an influenza surveillance project.

There was no known connection between the two patients. Laboratory analysis at CDC determined that the viruses obtained from these two patients were very similar to each other, and different from any other influenza viruses previously seen either in humans or animals.

Testing showed that these two viruses were resistant to the two antiviral drugs amantadine and rimantadine, but susceptible to the antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir. CDC began an immediate investigation into the situation in coordination with state and local animal and human health officials in California.

What's the next possible lurking pandemic?

Science Daily reports on a new MIT study that investigates potential flu pandemics circulating in pig and birds that could pose a significant threat to humans if they jump the species barrier.

In the summer of 1968, a new strain of influenza appeared in Hong Kong. This strain, known as H3N2, spread around the globe and eventually killed an estimated 1 million people.

A new study from MIT reveals that there are many strains of H3N2 circulating in birds and pigs that are genetically similar to the 1968 strain and have the potential to generate a pandemic if they leap to humans.

The researchers, led by Ram Sasisekharan, the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT, also found that current flu vaccines might not offer protection against these strains.

The study appears in the May 10 issue of the journal Scientific Reports noting a number of potentially dangerous viral strains that public health agencies should be on the lookout for.

Caribbean talks on conservation at Richard Branson's Necker Island

AP with Ed Joyce — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:57:13 -0700

Political and business leaders are gathering Friday on Richard Branson's Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands to support a program intended to protect the Caribbean's imperiled coasts and waters. The "Caribbean Challenge" calls for special protected zones along at least 20 percent of the region's coasts by 2020 in hopes of protecting its biodiversity and its crucial tourism market. The Caribbean's scattered islands has 10 percent of the world's coral reefs and some 1,400 species of fish and marine mammals. (Photo: Couple holding hands while snorkeling in the clear waters of the Caribbean. Photo by Christian Wheatley/Getty Images); Credit: Christian Wheatley/Getty Images

Political and business leaders are gathering on a billionaire's private island Friday to back a program aimed at expanding protection for the Caribbean's imperiled coasts and waters.

The "Caribbean Challenge" calls for special protected zones along at least 20 percent of the region's coasts by 2020 in hopes of protecting its biodiversity and its crucial tourism market. The Caribbean's scattered islands that has 10 percent of the world's coral reefs and some 1,400 species of fish and marine mammals.

Richard Branson, the adventuring CEO and founder of the Virgin Group of companies is co-hosting the meeting at Necker Island, his home in the British Virgin Islands, where he has developed an ultra-exclusive eco-resort that showcases renewable energy technology and reintroduced flamingoes.

"It's just so important to get every single Caribbean country 100 percent behind protecting the wonderful sea life and the wonderful reefs and mangroves, and therefore the species that occupy our oceans," Branson said in a phone interview from the island.

British Virgin Islands Premier Orlando Smith and Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell are also co-hosting the gathering of delegations from nine Caribbean countries, chiefs of resort companies and cruise lines, representatives of the World Bank, United Nations and other international bodies, private foundations and environmental groups.

One of the key promoters is the Virginia-based Nature Conservancy, which says that the Caribbean Challenge, begun in 2008, is one of the world's most ambitious conservation initiatives.

"The Caribbean is truly paradise under threat, and today's focus is a critical step toward a brighter future," Glenn Prickett, chief external affairs officer with the Nature Conservancy, said in an email.

If the Caribbean, the world's most tourism dependent region, takes strong steps now to protect its natural resources, conservationists say it will be in a far stronger position to protect its small economies and cope with future threats from climate change and ocean acidification due to greenhouse gases.

The challenges are many in the ecologically stressed Caribbean, which covers some 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles). Once brilliant coral reefs have lost their luster due to warming waters and disease. Live coral cover of existing reefs has plummeted to an average of just 8 percent from 50 percent in the 1970s, the International Union for Conservation of Nature says. Three-fourths of the reefs are considered threatened, also degraded by overfishing, runoff pollution and coastal development.

"In the past, the Caribbean has not been great at protecting the eagle rays and the sharks and the reef fish and so on," Branson said.

Some of the Caribbean Challenge's participating countries - Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and the British Virgin Islands - have already taken steps to reach their conservation targets.

The Dominican Republic has actually exceeded its 20 percent goal by creating more than 30 new protected areas in recent years. The Bahamas established the largest marine protected area in the region by expanding a national park in Andros from 185,000 acres to 1.28 million acres. Jamaica has set up several "no-take" fishing sanctuaries.

But there are questions about how deep the political will really is in a region with heavily indebted governments. Political leaders have long spoken about the need for protecting coasts, developing alternative energy sources and diversifying tourism-dependent economies but little has been accomplished. One country, Antigua & Barbuda, recently dropped out of the initiative for reasons that are not clear.

Branson said strong conservation efforts would pay off for years to come for a region where 70 percent of the people live in coastal settlements and a $20 billion tourism industry provides more than 2 million jobs.

"Many, many people who come to the Caribbean come because they want to enjoy the reef, they want to see the sea life on the reef," Branson said. "And therefore they want to see it better protected."

An animal once used as a pregnancy test may be 'the Typhoid Mary of the frog world'

Lisa Brenner — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:49:53 -0700

Xenopus laevis | African Clawed Frog; Credit: Photo by Brian Gratwicke via Flickr Creative Commons

Mercury News reports that an African frog imported decades ago to California for medical testing may be the "Typhoid Mary of the frog world," according to a new a Stanford/SFSU study published Thursday in the journal Plos One.

According to researchers, the African clawed frog carries a deadly fungus that is responsible for the decline and extinction of approximately 200 amphibian species around the world.

Bay Area scientists believe they have discovered the Typhoid Mary of the frog world: a flat, feral creature that carried a deadly fungus from Africa to California's ponds and puddles through global trading.

Genetic analysis revealed that eight of 206 African clawed frogs -- caught wild or preserved in jars at the California Academy of Sciences -- carried the fungal plague called chytridiomycosis, which leaves them unharmed but kills native frogs in catastrophic numbers.

The theory is that the deadly fungus thrived in Africa and then spread worldwide. The infection was detected in a frog captured in Africa 1934; A recently infected frog was found alive in Golden Gate Park's Lily Pond.

Researchers spent hours in the basement of the California Academy of Sciences sorting thousands of specimen jars of old, dead frogs — some of which had been floating there in ethanol since 1871. DNA swabs were taken from the skin in between toes and around claws.

The frogs were first brought to the U.S. in the early 20th century to be used as pregnancy tests; they were injected with urine from female patients. When the practice was discontinued, the animals may have been released into the wild.

Bullfrogs have also been implicated in this worldwide spread of amphibian death and mayhem, according to a University of Michigan study, reports the Mercury News.

The fungus is particularly tough on the thin-skinned creatures. Called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or "Bd," it kills frogs by clogging their pores, deranging their blood chemistry and causing their tiny brains to swell.

The infection has led to the recent decline or extinction of 200 frog species worldwide, from the Sierra yellow-legged frog to the exotic jewel-colored creatures that decorate calendars, postage stamps and National Geographic magazine covers.

Scientists have not yet come up with a protective solution, or a way to transfer the resilience displayed by some frogs to the more vulnerable species.

Containing the worldwide epidemic is "a major challenge," according to study collaborators who say the fungus can also be spread through water, wind and on bird feathers.

The frogs' use, sale and transport are now highly regulated in California, but the damage has been done, they said. (A pygmy version, a favorite of aquarium enthusiasts, is less hardy, so it's not considered a threat.)

In the late 1980s, the L.A. Times published a story called "Predatory and voracious, the 'little eating machines' thrive in Santa Clara River despite a 15-year eradication campaign. : African Frogs Remain Kings of the Canyon," reporting on their decimation of a fish population:

The camouflage-green frogs are decimating the last known population of the unarmoured threespine stickleback, a tiny endangered fish found only where the Santa Clara River flows through Soledad Canyon.

Harvey Fischer, the curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Los Angeles Zoo at the time, said of the species, "They're just little eating machines," noting that the creature can grow to about eight inches (with legs extended) and use three claws on each hind leg to, "shred their prey."

The University of Michigan's comprehensive Museum of Zoology Animal Diversity Web database has a detailed fact sheet on the invasive species and its impact, geography, physical development, lifespan, behavior, diet, reproduction and habitat.

Long Beach to sue Los Angeles over Southern California International Gateway

Molly Peterson — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:24:37 -0700

A cargo ship in Long Beach harbor. The SCIG railyard will enable trucks to transfer cargo onto trains closer to the port. ; Credit: JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images

In a completely unsurprising move, the Long Beach City Council has authorized the city attorney to sue the city of Los Angeles over the Southern California International Gateway.

It’s not surprising because, at hearings over the last several months, lots of folks, including Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, have been asking L.A. to reconsider the $500 million privately-funded railyard proposed for a site along the 710 freeway near Wilmington and West Long Beach.

Foster told L.A. harbor commissioners back in March that BNSF, the project’s sponsor, has been unresponsive to community concerns. “What they really said is…we’re going to wait 'til you sue us before we deal with these concerns," Foster told the harbor commissioners, in unusually public criticism of the port. “This body has done precious little to mitigate the impacts of what we see. I hope that changes."

Last night’s vote in Long Beach sets up the likelihood of two lawsuits challenging SCIG’s environmental impact report. Environmental groups, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, also have repeatedly raised objections to the project. As recently as last week, the NRDC said legal challenges were certain, with a federal civil rights challenge possible.

In a letter to the L.A. City Council, NRDC attorney David Pettit wrote that the SCIG project “exudes environmental injustice,” and noted that the project’s EIR admitted that significant impacts “would fall disproportionately on minority and low-income populations" living near the railyard.

All of the legal threats may make it hard to remember that these same entities – the city of L.A., the city of Long Beach, and environmental groups, including the NRDC – united in support of the Clean Air Action Plan, and, for a while at least, the Clean Trucks Program. At the time, the plan represented a renewed effort by the ports to incorporate the concerns of environmental and community groups into its planning.

One project does not a trend make. But here’s what comes next at the port of Los Angeles: more expansion. BNSF’s competitor, UP, will be looking to enhance its own railyard capabilities, for example. So what this project might signal is more legal costs for the city and for the community at a time when everyone’s saying they’re broke.

Gov. Brown wants to grab $500 million in cap-and-trade proceeds for general fund

Molly Peterson — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:22:34 -0700

California's carbon-credit market has raised $500 million in revenue, which Governor Brown wants to borrow to balance general fund expenses. ; Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

Gov. Jerry Brown plans to borrow $500 million from a program to fight climate change, as part of his effort to balance the budget - a move that has stirred up clean air advocates.

California has begun auctioning off carbon emission permits as part of its cap-and-trade program. They're basically licenses to pollute that businesses can buy to offset their emissions. The money -- $500 million collected so far -- goes into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

Brown wants to use that money to cover the state's general fund expenses, and pay it back later, with interest. He argues that it's okay to borrow the money because greenhouse gas reduction programs are just getting off the ground.

The Sierra Club, the Greenlining Institute and other environmental groups say the permit fees can only be spent on programs that reduce greenhouse gases.

They argue that some of the money the governor wants to borrow was going to fund clean air programs in low-income and minority neighborhoods near refineries and other sources of pollution.

The governor did sign a law last year meant to protect carbon fees from being diverted for general fund use. But SB 535 doesn't stop him from borrowing the money.

The science behind Angelina Jolie’s choice of a preventative double mastectomy

AirTalk — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:29:37 -0700

Actress Angelina Jolie attends the Women in the World Summit 2013 on April 4, 2013 in New York, United States. Jolie spoke out this week about her preventative double mastectomy. How should women best screen for and protect against breast cancer? ; Credit: Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images

The actress made a stunning announcement in a New York Times op-ed that she underwent a double mastectomy to reduce her risk of contracting breast cancer. Jolie said she was a carrier of the “faulty” gene BRCA1.

The gene can be detected with a blood test and can alert patients to a higher-than-average risk of breast and ovarian cancers. What is the BRCA1 gene and how do you test for it? Are the tests reliable? If you are a carrier of the gene, what are your medical options? Is preventative surgery the best way to cut down your cancer risk?

Guests:

Dr. Nova Foster, surgical director of the UCLA Santa Monica breast center

Dr. David Agus, Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California; Director of the USC Westside Cancer Center

Interview Highlights:

Dr. David Agus on what makes the testing process so difficult?
"If there isn't a history of breast cancer in the family and we look at the genes and there's an abnormal letter, we don't always know what it means. So we really only know how to understand it in the context of a family history of breast cancer."

Dr. Agus on why its so expensive to get tested:
"When you start to look at it, there's a company that patented the gene, and there's a Supreme Court case that should be decided in the next month saying 'should they be allowed to patent the gene?' because the test costs over $3,000. People who's insurance companies don't pay for, or don't have insurance, don't have the ability to look at their own gene. To run the test costs several dollars, yet they charge thousands of dollar. So should we be allowed to patent genes and not allow people without the resources to look at their own DNA. There is a cheaper version of the test for people of Ashkenazic Jewish descent because we know exactly where to look and we don't have to sequence the whole gene in those patients."

Dr. Agus on whether pre-existing conditions:
"Bush passed a law called GINA, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, so based on that nobody, whether an employer or insurance company an discriminate based on a preexisting genetic condition. That being said even before that law was passed, there aren't cases in the courts where people have discriminated against, but I'm glad that the protection exists, because it needs to. All of us need to be empowered with knowledge. With knowledge comes the ability to prevent."

Dr. Agus on how men factor into the discussion:
"A man, if he carried BRC1 or 2 has a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer [and male breast cancer], so they themselves need to be aware. They also need to be aware that they will pass it on to their children, so they need to be aware for themselves and their children. If a young girl, a teenager, goes on oral contraceptives and she's BRCA1 positive, you're going to have a dramatic increase in breast cancer before the age of 20, so it's an issue that society hasn't even addressed. These kids aren't old enough to consent to genetic testing, yet obviously if we know we can do things differently in these young girls to hopefully make them live a long and better life."

Dr. Nova Foster on the advances of reconstructive surgery:
"The aesthetics of the reconstructive surgery have made great advances in recent years...Angelina Jolie decided to go with an implant based reconstruction, you can also do reconstruction of the breast with autologous tissue, so you can harvest your own tissue from the tummy area or other areas if the tummy tissue isn't available or appropriate. but certainly the aesthetics of the reconstructed appearance are quite amazing these days and I think she's made a very important point in saying that it in no way diminishes her femininity."

Dr. Foster on why the decision to undergo a double mastectomy is so difficult:
"In our culture breasts are a huge part of one's self-image, and it's a significant thing to contemplate losing your breasts no matter how nice the reconstruction is, it's still a big emotional thing that women have to deal with. You certainly can't underestimate that."

'Cyborg' Neil Harbisson can hear in color

Eliza Mills | AirTalk — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:27:32 -0700

Neil Harbisson gives a TED talk: "I Listen to Color."; Credit: TED

Neil Harbisson was born with achromatopsia, rendering him only able to see the world in grayscale, but with a machine he helped invent called the "eyeborg" he can now hear in color. Harbisson says he was inspired by the idea of expanding his perception: his eyeborg machine perceives a wide spectrum of colors, including some that the human eye can't detect, and translates them into sound.

Each color matches up with a tone and pitch, and using bone conduction in the back of his skull, Harbisson is able to listen to the colors the machine is seeing.

"It's pressuring the bone, so I can hear colors through bone conduction and it's a chip at the back of my head that's transposing light frequencies to sound frequencies," said Harbisson. "Now I want it drilled inside the bone...I presented this as an operation to the hospital and this was accepted last year, so this year it will take place in Barcelona."

Harbisson has been wearing his eyeborg for almost a decade, and over time has adapted it to see more and more. The eyeborg can detect some colors that only insects and birds can see, as well as infrared, which Harbisson says is his favorite color because of its low tone.

The machine transposes the frequency of light that create color 37 octaves lower to create sounds that Harbisson can detect. Each color has a “microtone” -- at first the cacophony was overwhelming and distracting.

“At the beginning it was very chaotic and I couldn’t really distinguish colors in front of me, but after months and after years of hearing colors continuously this just became a new sense, it became something beautiful, and I started to perceive the colors by the sounds," said Harbisson. “It’s like living in a music composition.”

His brain is so used to hearing color all the time that it has become normal for him. Harbisson has developed perfect pitch on his sonochromatic scale and can immediately match a tone to the correct color.

The eyeborg is permanently attached to Harbisson’s head — originally he was carrying around a heaving computer — and after the eyeborg is surgically implanted he will hear colors with a less pressured form of bone conduction.

Harbisson began to feel as though he was a cyborg after five months of wearing the eyeborg.

“Being a cyborg is feeling like a cybernetic device is no longer an external device but part of your body,” he said. He began to feel as though the eyeborg was “an extension of [his] brain” when he started to have dreams in sound-color, hearing the tones associated with colors in his dreams.

“When I sleep it’s my brain that creates electronic sounds,” Harbisson says. “If I go to sleep if I dream of the sky or I dream of oranges my brain creates electronic sounds of the sky or the oranges. So I dream in color, but it’s the sound of color that I dream of.”

Harbisson, a former music student, has used his expanded senses as a cyborg to contribute to his art. He paints famous speeches and works of music. He has spent time listening to famous faces -- Prince Charles has a nice sound to him -- and looking at beautiful vistas, though Harbisson says his favorite views are at the supermarket, where pure white light enhances bright colors.

None of his other senses are compromised — he hears colors through bone conduction and audio through regular air conduction in his ears — only enhanced. Harbisson says that if someone who could see in color used an electronic eye, “it would be probably be like taking drugs because it would have kind of a psychedelic effect.”

Harbisson points out that while he is using the eyeborg to perceive color, similar technology could be used only for ultraviolets or infrareds -- users would know it was a good day to sunbathe or whether infrared light was being used in the room they were in.

While many are fascinated by the eyeborg and cyborgism, Harbisson says that cyborg rights have a ways to go. Harbisson has often been discriminated against by store owners and law enforcement officers who assume the eyeborg is a camera. There are also developments to be made in the medical field for those wishing to use technology to enhance their senses. Harbisson says that when he has problems perceiving a color he doesn’t know who to go to -- an opthamologist, a neurologist, or a computer programmer.

What is the future of cyborgism? How can people enhance their perception with technology? Neil Harbisson joins us for a conversation about his experience as the world's first recognized cyborg.

Guest:
Neil Harbisson, Cyborgist and Colorologist

Project aims to track carbon footprint of LA and other big cities

Alicia Chang | AP — Sun, 12 May 2013 08:01:02 -0700

Gadget atop the Mount Wilson transmitter site monitor L.A.'s carbon footprint..; Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward.

Halfway around the globe, similar contraptions atop the Eiffel Tower and elsewhere around Paris keep a pulse on emissions from smokestacks and automobile tailpipes. And there is talk of outfitting Sao Paulo, Brazil, with sensors that sniff the byproducts of burning fossil fuels.

It's part of a budding effort to track the carbon footprints of megacities, urban hubs with over 10 million people that are increasingly responsible for human-caused global warming.

For years, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse pollutants have been closely monitored around the planet by stations on the ground and in space. Now, scientists are eyeing large cities — with L,A, and Paris as guinea pigs — and aiming to observe emissions in the atmosphere as a first step toward independently verifying whether local — and often lofty — climate goals are being met.

For the past year, a high-tech sensor poking out from a converted shipping container has stared at the Los Angeles basin from its mile-high perch on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains that's home to a famous observatory and communication towers.

Like a satellite gazing down on Earth, it scans more than two dozen points from the inland desert to the coast. Every few minutes, it rumbles to life as it automatically sweeps the horizon, measuring sunlight bouncing off the surface for the unique fingerprint of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

In a storage room next door, commercially available instruments that typically monitor air quality double as climate sniffers. And in nearby Pasadena, a refurbished vintage solar telescope on the roof of a laboratory on the California Institute of Technology campus captures sunlight and sends it down a shaft 60 feet below where a prism-like instrument separates out carbon dioxide molecules.

On a recent April afternoon atop Mount Wilson, a brown haze hung over the city, the accumulation of dust and smoke particles in the atmosphere.

"There are some days where we can see 150 miles way out to the Channel Islands and there are some days where we have trouble even seeing what's down here in the foreground," said Stanley Sander, a senior research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

What Sander and others are after are the pretty much invisible greenhouse gases spewing from factories and freeways below.

There are plans to expand the network. This summer, technicians will install commercial gas analyzers at a dozen more rooftops around the greater L.A. region. Scientists also plan to drive around the city in a Prius outfitted with a portable emission-measuring device and fly a research aircraft to pinpoint methane hotspots from the sky. (A well-known natural source is the La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of LA where underground bacteria burp bubbles of methane gas to the surface.)

Six years ago, elected officials vowed to reduce emissions to 35 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 by shifting to renewable energy and weaning the city's dependence on out-of-state coal-fired plants, greening the twin port complex and airports and retrofitting city buildings.

It's impractical to blanket the city with instruments so scientists rely on a handful of sensors and use computer models to work backward to determine the sources of the emissions and whether they're increasing. They won't be able to zero in on an offending street or a landfill, but they hope to be able to tell whether switching buses from diesel to alternative fuel has made a dent.

Project manager Riley Duren of JPL said it'll take several years of monitoring to know whether L.A. is on track to reach its goal.

Scientists not involved with the project say it makes sense to dissect emissions on a city level to confirm whether certain strategies to curb greenhouse gases are working. But they're divided about the focus.

Allen Robinson, an air quality expert at Carnegie Mellon University, said he prefers more attention paid to measuring a city's methane emissions since scientists know less about them than carbon dioxide release.

Nearly 58 percent of California's carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 came from gasoline-powered vehicles, according to the U.S. Energy Department's latest figures.

In much of the country, coal —usually as fuel for electric power — is a major source of carbon dioxide pollution. But in California, it's responsible for a tad more than 1 percent of the state's carbon dioxide emissions. Natural gas, considered a cleaner fuel, spews one third of the state's carbon dioxide.

Overall, California in 2010 released about 408 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air. The state's carbon dioxide pollution is greater than all but 20 countries and is just ahead of Spain's emissions. In 2010, California put nearly 11 tons of carbon dioxide into the air for every person, which is lower than the national average of 20 tons per person.

Gregg Marland, an Appalachian State University professor who has tracked worldwide emissions for the Energy Department, said there's value in learning about a city's emissions and testing techniques.

"I don't think we need to try this in many places, but we have to try some to see what works and what we can do," he said.

Launching the monitoring project came with the usual growing pains. In Paris, a carbon sniffer originally tucked away in the Eiffel Tower's observation deck had to be moved to a higher floor that's off-limits to the public after tourists' exhaling interfered with the data.

So far, $3 million have been spent on the U.S. effort with funding from federal, state and private groups. The French, backed by different sponsors, have spent roughly the same.

Scientists hope to strengthen their ground measurements with upcoming launches of Earth satellites designed to track carbon dioxide from orbit. The field experiment does not yet extend to China, by far the world's biggest carbon dioxide polluter. But it's a start, experts say.

With the focus on megacities, others have worked to decipher the carbon footprint of smaller places like Indianapolis, Boston and Oakland, where University of California, Berkeley, researchers have taken a different tack and blanketed school rooftops with relatively inexpensive sensors.

"We are at a very early stage of knowing the best strategy, and need to learn the pros and cons of different approaches," said Inez Fung, a professor of atmospheric science at Berkeley who has no role in the various projects.

Astronauts spacewalk to repair ammonia leak

Marcia Dunn / AP — Sat, 11 May 2013 12:37:28 -0700

Birds fly past a NASA logo on the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.; Credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Astronauts making a rare, hastily planned spacewalk replaced a pump outside the International Space Station on Saturday in hopes of plugging a serious ammonia leak.

The prospects of success grew as the minutes passed and no frozen flecks of ammonia appeared. Mission Control said it appeared as though the leak may have been plugged, although additional monitoring over the next few weeks, if not months, will be needed before declaring a victory.

"No evidence of any ammonia leakage whatsoever. We have an airtight system — at the moment," Mission Control reported.

Christopher Cassidy and Thomas Marshburn installed the new pump after removing the old one suspected of spewing flakes of frozen ammonia coolant two days earlier. They uncovered "no smoking guns" responsible for the leak and consequently kept a sharp lookout for any icy flecks that might appear from the massive frame that holds the solar panels on the left side.

"Let us know if you see anything," Mission Control urged as the fresh pump was cranked up. Thirty minutes later, all was still well. "No snow," the astronauts radioed.

"We have our eyes on it and haven't seen a thing," Marshburn said.

NASA said the leak, while significant, never jeopardized crew safety. But managers wanted to deal with the trouble now, while it's fresh and before Marshburn returns to Earth in just a few days.

The space agency never before staged such a fast, impromptu spacewalk for a station crew. Even during the shuttle days, unplanned spacewalks were uncommon.

The ammonia pump was the chief suspect going into Saturday's spacewalk. So it was disheartening for NASA, at first, as Cassidy and Marshburn reported nothing amiss on or around the old pump.

"All the pipes look shiny clean, no crud," Cassidy said as he used a long, dentist-like mirror to peer into tight, deep openings.

"I can't give you any good data other than nominal, unfortunately. No smoking guns."

Engineers determined there was nothing to lose by installing a new pump, despite the lack of visible damage to the old one. The entire team — weary and stressed by the frantic pace of the past two days — gained more and more confidence as the 5 1/2-hour spacewalk drew to a close with no flecks of ammonia popping up.

"Gloved fingers crossed," space station commander Chris Hadfield said in a tweet from inside. "No leaks!" he wrote a half-hour later.

Flight controllers in Houston worked furiously to get ready for Saturday's operation, completing all the required preparation in under 48 hours. The astronauts trained for just such an emergency scenario before they rocketed into orbit; the repair job is among NASA's so-called Big 12.

This area on the space station is prone to leaks.

The ammonia coursing through the plumbing is used to cool the space station's electronic equipment. There are eight of these power channels, and all seven others were operating normally. As a result, life for the six space station residents was pretty much unaffected, aside from the drama unfolding Saturday 255 miles above the planet. The loss of two power channels, however, could threaten science experiments and backup equipment.

"We may not have found exactly the smoking gun," Cassidy said, "but to pull off what this team did yesterday and today, working practically 48 straight hours, it was a remarkable effort on everybody's behalf."

NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini said it's a mystery as to why the leak erupted. Possibilities include a micrometeorite strike or a flawed seal. Ammonia already had been seeping ever so slightly from the location, but the flow increased dramatically Thursday.

Marshburn has been on the space station since December and is set to return to Earth late Monday. Cassidy is a new arrival, on board for just 1½ months.

By coincidence, the two performed a spacewalk at this troublesome spot before, during a shuttle visit in 2009.

"This type of event is what the years of training were for," Hadfield said in a tweet Friday. "A happy, busy crew, working hard, loving life in space."

Los Angeles, Orange County in time lapse photos from 1984 to today

Mike Roe — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:33:54 -0700

Satellite image of Los Angeles in 2012.; Credit: Google

Google’s new Earth Engine provides annual timelapse satellite images from 1984 through 2012, based on Landsat satellite photos. The Landsat Program is jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, and Google has utilized these images to create time lapse shots that show change in a striking way.

Here in Los Angeles, it’s a bit subtle, but you can watch the city fill out as we get a little bit more packed in.

1984:

2012:

Check out time lapse animation of this region from 1984 through 2012 here.

Some of the most dramatic expansion in the Southern California area over this period of time can be seen in Orange County, particularly around Irvine and Mission Viejo.

1984:

2012:

See the full time lapse animation here.

Other interesting time lapse areas featured by Google include the growth of Las Vegas, the deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and the retreat of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska.

Brain transplant: UCLA's LONI neuro imaging lab is moving to USC

Sanden Totten — Fri, 10 May 2013 06:00:30 -0700

Arthur Toga (left) and Paul Thompson lead the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. It's currently based in UCLA but will move to USC later this year.; Credit: KPCC/Sanden Totten

The University of Southern California is about to get a brain boost.

The school is acquiring UCLA's Laboratory of N euro Imaging. The research facility employs about 100 people who study and map the human brain. It's led by researchers Arthur Toga and Paul Thompson.

"We're on cloud nine," said Toga, who founded the lab 26 years ago. "This is a really exciting move for us. Being able to build a new program across town is really an opportunity of a lifetime."

In the past, the lap has studied disorders like autism and dementia, as well as memory and IQ. One of the researchers' bigger projects is ENIGMA, a collaborative brain mapping effort that involves 125 institutions around the world. This is the kind of work Thompson and Toga plan to take with them to USC. The lab will open at USC in the fall.

"We can really tackle some of the major problems in medicine and neuroscience," Thompson said.

Toga and Thompson said USC offered them new facilities and formal partnerships with other disciplines like medicine and engineering. Thompson said the pace of research at USC was appealing, too.

"Everything is fast. I think one of the things that both Arthur and I noticed is that there is an efficiency in speed in doing things that is very very refreshing and it makes people excited about getting on with things," he said.

The lab will be taking research grants worth 20 million a year with it to USC. The majority of its funding comes from government organizations like the National Institutes of Health. Researchers across the country said some of those grants are drying up because of sequestration cuts.

That's where a fundraising powerhouse like USC can help, said Provost Elizabeth Garrett.

"Philanthropy has always played a role with respect to basic science research," Garrett said. "Although the federal government has been there to fund some things... before you apply in a very competitive peer-reviewed process, you've got to show that the science is worth investing in."

Usually that means early work and testing. Garrett says private donations can help pay for the pricey equipment and initial research that gives a lab a leg up when applying for those grants.

Landing the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging is part of a much larger plan to turn USC into the world's leading research institution, Garrett said. The school is in the midst of a seven year campaign to raise $6 billion toward that goal.

It has hired other top scientists, like Andrew McMahon, a stem cell expert from Harvard and Steve Gruber, a cancer researcher formerly with the University of Michigan.

Luring away star faculty is one thing, but getting an entire lab to relocate is "unprecedented", according to Elizabeth Scarborough, a Virginia-based marketing consultant specializing in colleges and universities.

She said hiring top talent like Thompson and Toga will not only help USC attract the best students, it'll aid fundraising efforts.

"This is very clearly an investment in their future," Scarborough said.

The move is a major loss for UCLA. Officials there did not return calls for comment.

In a statement, Chancellor Gene Block said he is "disappointed" that the lab is moving to the school's crosstown rival.

But he said UCLA will remain a player in the field. The school also runs the Staglin IMHRO Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.

Nations agree to new chemical ban, export controls

AP — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:59:18 -0700

U.N. officials and delegates said Friday that more than 120 nations agreed to tighter controls on several chemicals and hazardous waste, including a gradual ban on a flame retardant and some new export requirements for other substances. (Photo: Outside the United Nations building in New York.); Credit: Da Lu/Flickr

U.N. officials and delegates say more than 120 nations agreed to tighter controls on several chemicals and hazardous waste, including a gradual ban on a flame retardant and some new export requirements for other substances.

But they say an effort to rein in use of construction material Chrysotile asbestos and a powerful herbicide, Paraquat, fell short at a two-week summit of delegates to three main international treaties.

The heads of two U.N. agencies and other officials told reporters Friday the summit was ending with agreement to phase-out the commonly used flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane, or HBCD, but exempted some uses in buildings.

The officials and delegates say the summit approved tighter requirements for disclosing information about exports of insecticide Azinphos-methyl, two flame retardants, PentaBDE and OctaBDE, and a fabric protector, PFOS.

7 baby seal photos to remind you why you love baby seal photos: First male harbor seal born at Aquarium of the Pacific

Lisa Brenner — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:27:53 -0700

The Aquarium of the Pacific is celebrating the birth of the first male harbor seal at the institution, born on May 1, 2013.; Credit: Photo Credit: Robin Riggs, Aquarium of the Pacific

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach announced the birth of its first male harbor seal at the institution, born May 1 to happy pinniped parents Shelby and Troy.

The undercover pup is not yet available for public viewing. He'll remain behind the scenes with mom until mid-to-late summer when the two are moved into the Seal and Sea Lion Habitat.

In the meantime, start coming up with names. Join the Aquarium’s "Adopt an Animal" program at the $25 level or higher before June 30 and you get to suggest a moniker for the mooneyed creature.

Previously on The Seal Housewives of Long Beach

Baby seal born May 1 weighing approximately 30 pounds at birth.
Shelby came to the Aquarium in 1998.
Troy is the Aquarium’s only male harbor seal; came to the Aquarium in 2007.
Most seals give birth to young starting at four to five years of age.
Shelby is seventeen years old and is considered a mature mom.
The new male harbor seal is her second pup.
Shelby gave birth to her first pup, a female named Bixby, in April last year.

What is "Adopt an Animal" all about?

- Individuals or groups can choose to adopt one of eight animals at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

- Adopt a seal at the $25 level or higher before June 30, 2013 for the opportunity to suggest a name for the first male harbor seal born at the Aquarium.

- Aquarium staff will then choose one of the suggested names.

- The person whose suggested name is selected will have the opportunity to go behind the scenes to see the pup.

- "Parents" at the $25 level will receive an adoption certificate, photo, fact sheet about the animal, invitation to a special event, a subscription to the Adopt an Animal e-updates, and more.

- "Parents" at the $50 level also receive a seal plush toy.

- "Parents" at higher levels include benefits such as admission tickets, behind-the-scenes tours, animal encounters, and more.

- For a full list of levels and benefits, please visit www.aquariumofpacific.org/adopt.

Los Angeles City Council approves railyard project near Port of LA [updated]

Molly Peterson — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:03:34 -0700

A cargo ship in Long Beach harbor. The SCIG railyard project is designed to shorten the trip for trucks transferring cargo from ships onto freight trains. ; Credit: JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images

The L.A. City Council has approved a controversial $500 million railyard project near the Port of Los Angeles. The council voted 11 to 2 to in favor of the project, known as the Southern California International Gateway (SCIG). An environmental group is vowing a lawsuit to stop the project.

The site for the railyard is in Wilmington; it would shorten the trips for cargo trucks transferring cargo from ships onto freight trains. The project's backers, including labor and business interests, say a new railyard transfer site will reduce pollution and create thousands of jobs.

Community activists, environmental groups and regional air regulators opposed the project. They argue that it will increase pollution, particularly in poor communities.

The opponents included a senior air quality official. Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, told the council that he believes the project's environmental benefits have been overblown.

"BNSF [the project's backer] and the port argue that pollution levels in the adjacent community will be lower," said Wallerstein. "Our review with our air quality experts indicates that that is not so, that the EIR [environmental impact report] overstates future pollution levels without SCIG, making the project appear more beneficial" than it would be.

But Councilman Joe Buscaino, who represents the area, argued that the project is necessary to ensure the port's future competititveness in light of the widening of the Panama Canal.

An official with the Natural Resources Defense Council told KPCC that the group will file a lawsuit seeking to block the railyard project. The environmental organization hopes to persuade a judge that the EIR was flawed.

City councilman and mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti was absent for the vote.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued a statement saying the railyard will improve the environment at the port and in the region.

"I realize, however, that some community members remain concerned about the project," the mayor said. "I have asked the Port and my staff to continue discussions with them to try to address those concerns."

This story was updated at 5:54 p.m. May 8, 2013

Orange County's Discovery Science Center to expand to San Fernando Valley

Sanden Totten — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:00:27 -0700

The Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana plans to open a second museum in the San Fernando Valley.; Credit: Discovery Science Center

Orange County's Discovery Science Center will be presented Wednesday with a National Medal for Museum and Library Service. It's the nation's highest honor for such institutions and this is the first time any California science museum has received the award. It comes as the Discovery Science Center is expanding to a second facility in the San Fernando Valley.

How it got that facility is a long story.

It started in 2008 when another museum - the Children's Museum of Los Angeles - filed for bankruptcy. That museum had already built a shiny new building at San Fernando Valley's Hansen Dam Recreation Area. But due to bad finances, the Children's Museum went under.

City Council member Richard Alarcon represents that area and was helping guide the project at the time.

"So we had this shell of a building, a beautiful building," said Alarcon. "We needed somebody to manage it."

If the city couldn't fill it with a museum it would lose millions of dollars of grant money - not to mention the chance to give the valley a first class educational experience. So councilmember Alarcon started looking for another place to partner with.

"Early on I took my daughter Camilla when she was two years old to the Discovery Science Center and I knew it was a hit," he said.

The city began talks with the Center, and by late last year a deal was finalized. The revamped museum is tentatively called The Discovery Science Center Los Angeles. It will have sections on the environment and healthy living, as well as traveling exhibits. In the past the Center hosted a show on the science of Star Wars and an Indiana Jones-themed archeology exhibit.

Plus, Science Center spokesman Dan Nasitka say, the center will create outreach programs to bring science lessons to local schools.

"You know, it's exciting that we get to bring all of the best things we do in Orange County, in terms of all our outreach, our crazy cool exhibits we get down here," he said, and "we get to bring all of that to the valley."

Nasitka says the Center has already secured nearly $23 million for the new facility. The money comes from the city of L.A., the state, and the federal government.

It's enough to move ahead. If all goes well the new museum will open in November of next year.