Category: Science

It’s such a simple question we don’t think to ask it.

But the answer is out there.

Recycled paper products

Even my tiny Manhattan food market now sports two different brands of recycled paper products.

Annie’s has grown from one product (organic macaroni and cheese) to 80, fueling a $34 million company. The Organic Trade Association estimates the $12.25 billion organic food market will double by 2008, assuming an 18.4% annual growth rate (WSJ, March 29, 2005). With a $20 million investment from Solera Capital, Annie’s (and others on the same growth curve) can expand exponentially.

A recent edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition focused on the use of sustainable building products, hybrid cars, and efficient appliances.

Nike’s Considered line eliminates waste & toxics, uses less energy to produce, and reduces waste at the end of the product’s life.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – February 18, 2005 – Joining the ranks of celebrities choosing to bring an environmental conscience to the Oscars, Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlize Theron, Robin Williams, Orlando Bloom, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins are among those arriving at the 2005 Academy Awards in high-mileage, low emission, Prius hybrids as part of Global Green’s 3rd annual “Red Carpet—Green Stars” campaign.

GE pledges to invest billions in being green:

“Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to address challenges such as the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions and abundant sources of clean water,” Immelt said. “And we plan to make money doing it. Increasingly for business, ‘green’ is green.”

WSJ reports ($) that the effect of a gene depends on the environment it’s exposed to. Several studies have shown, for example, that water-fleas will only grow hard-skull defenses if they are in waters with fish, that oak-tree caterpillars grow to resemble the food they eat, and that men with the “violence gene” only act violent if they were neglected or abused as children. My favorite example:

Last summer, Michael Meaney of McGill University, Montreal, and colleagues reported that a gene that shapes how fearful, jumpy and neurotic a rat is can be altered by how regularly its mother licks and grooms it. Maternal care changes the chemistry of a “neuroticism gene,” and the rat grows up to be mellow and curious. The genetic trait for neuroticism — deemed innate because scientists had found a gene “for” it — is reversible by environment.

I wonder how different working environments interact with our genes?

Actually, no. But not so far off when you learn a rat brain has been taught to fly a jet.

Gibson extends: “…Thunderbolt IIs have Night Vision Imaging Systems (NVIS), rat brain compatible cockpits forward of their wings and a large bubble canopy which provides the rat brains all-around vision. The rat brains are encircled by titanium armor that also protects parts of the flight-control system…“

Atul Gawande’s The Bell Curve in last week’s New Yorker…

It used to be assumed that differences among hospitals or doctors in a particular specialty were generally insignificant. If you plotted a graph showing the results of all the centers treating cystic fibrosis—or any other disease for that matter—people expected that the curve would look something like a shark fin, with most places clustered around the very best outcomes. But the evidence has begun to indicate otherwise. What you tend to find is a bell curve: a handful of teams with disturbingly poor outcomes for their patients, a handful with remarkably good results, and a great, undistinguished middle.

It’s an excellent look at how honestly hospitals are dealing with their patients. Also of note is Tom Peter’s reaction.

I like that an online journal of nanotechnology has named itself Small Times.

Watson, half of the team that discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, interviewed in a recent issue of the New York Times magazine:

…I have an odd theory on happiness, and it bothers people. My general theory is that happiness is a reward for an animal doing what it should be doing. So if a horse runs, it feels happy. Or if you are too thin you can’t be happy, because evolution wants you to be tense and anxious, trying to wake up in the morning looking for food. So I was just saying that happiness comes only when you are doing things that are good for you….

…The molecule that you make when you are getting sunburned or when you eat a lot of food is part of the same molecule that contains an endorphine or an opiate. No one has ever had a hypothesis about why the two are together. So I came up with one.

And your hypothesis is that sun and food make you happy?

Yes, and running and exercise.

More on his theories, link courtesy of Bill.