A Letter to Wendell Berry...

Dear Wendell Berry,
I am writing to you because I recently had the enormous pleasure of reading your book “The Unsettling of America.” It was a pleasure because it allowed me to feel that rare sensation that one feels when he becomes aware of his surroundings for the first time…like cresting the top of a hill and seeing the view open up before you. You helped me to see the connection between the mania of modern society and its indifference to the increasingly efficient destruction of the Earth and its resources. You also helped me to see that the word “indifference” doesn’t accurately describe our collective decision to allow the earth to be used in the way that it has been – carelessly and wastefully. For our behavior reflects decision making based on deeply-rooted cultural values; it is active, not passive, although it may stem in part from laziness.

As a relatively young person (I am 26), I feel as though I was born into the assumptions of a society that had worked hard to finally reach a resting point. But rather than savor any equilibrium that may have existed (if any equilibrium ever did exist, it was certainly before I was born), society looked beyond the horizon, and it imagined what was possible. I feel as though my trajectory in life was, to some extent, determined by a “controlled burn” as they say in NASA, and I was propelled by the collective imaginations, hopes, expectations, and assumptions of the society that I emerged into when I was born. I am lucky because I have felt little resistance on this trajectory, and I realize that is a luxury…few people have the opportunity to move through life with such little gravity or friction, to continue the metaphor (if you don’t mind).

I was born with an apparently intrinsic desire to make my life “valuable,” I say apparently intrinsic, because it was almost certainly a learned behavior, but it drives me with the force of something on the order of an instinct or a reflex - that is, uncontrollable and never questioned. And I assume this to be generalizable to many (all?) humans: if we are mortal, and if we will not live forever, it is only logical to conclude that we should not waste our time here, and we should make our lives “count.” Without any hesitation, I believe this to be true, but with some influence from your book, I am beginning to question some of my previous assumptions about what it means to make a life “count.”

I am beginning to see that, as humans, we search for needs. In some cases, we invent them like a fireman starting a fire, and we make ourselves valuable by responding to those needs. The demand for our goods and services, increases our perceived value, as does the demand for any commodity. We may spend our lives attempting to fill a socio-economic niche, so that with any luck, we may look back on our lives and see that we were valuable. We may hope to “prove” this by pointing to a piece of evidence (something that is objectively valuable), and here, many people might cite their wealth or fame (belief, a subjective matter, may appear to be objectively true if it is believed commonly enough). In science, many people hope to look back on their lives to see that they were not only valuable but necessary; they may point to their discovery or their invention in order to reassure themselves that the world would not have been the same without them.

It is an especially insidious consequence of our desire to create meaning for our lives by driving progress (scientific or otherwise) that we cannot truly exist in the present with our minds and spirits squarely focused on the future. I consider The American Dream in the highest regard; there is nothing so wonderful as the idea that anyone, through hard work, may have the ability to transcend his or her circumstances, no matter how lowly. However, I wonder if this same dream may be driving us out of our own homes, because one silent corollary of this cultural edict is that we, in our current manifestations, are not sufficient. We do not value our roots in the same way that we value our branches. We would shed our pasts, our families, our homes, our memories, for a future that is uncertain and ever-receding, like the watery waves on a desert highway. We would not only give these things up, but we would spend our present, our only opportunity to experience the world, in pursuit of some place and some time that will forever be far off in the distance.

Recently I have begun to consider the possibility that perhaps we are sufficient, and perhaps, if we were to give up our desire to be necessary, we might begin to settle into our surroundings. In an absolute sense, we are not necessary; we are an extravagance. And we are only necessary insofar as we relate to our immediate network. There is a network that is built upon every human, a web of friends and acquaintances. But this web extends outward, and signals transmitted through it radiate outward and eventually return in a feedback loop. We are necessary for maintaining this network, and therefore, we are necessary for maintaining ourselves. As humans, we are not necessary for this earth’s existence, but we are necessary for our own existence.

I find myself now as a graduate student, studying biochemistry at the University of Washington. My lab studies the structure of the protein on the surface of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Surprisingly, this protein has been used in numerous vaccine trials, but we still have an extremely poor understanding of its structure. Looking back on it now, my decision to study HIV reflects an unmistakable impulse to make my life “count,” but in addition to this, science appeals to me in a very basic sense, not as a career, but as a lifestyle. We should honor the world we live in by observing it and wondering about it. We should strain all of our senses in the pursuit of a better appreciation of our surroundings. And as we take the time to enjoy the curiosities of this world (both natural and social), it is hard to believe that some protective instinct would not emerge within us. 

I am beginning to come to terms with the idea that I am not necessary…and that, in spite of this, I am valuable. Your book inspired me to re-evaluate my long-held beliefs regarding success and worth. It encouraged me to think about how I can best spend my time on earth, not so that I may live a life that is “objectively” valuable, but so that I may be happy and healthy and so that others may be as well. My career may go in any number of directions, but whatever path I take, you have helped me to realize that I want to be present in this world, in my family, and in my community. I want to protect these things. I want to be present in the present and in my own life. What is more valuable than this? What could be more necessary?

I apologize for the length of the letter, but I hope you will enjoy seeing that your ideas have given rise to many more. If you have any advice for someone at my stage in life, I would be glad to hear it. On the other hand, you have already provided me with an entire book’s worth of great thoughts, so you can consider me satisfied. Thank you for helping me to see my surroundings more clearly.

All My Best To You,
Tad

The Water We Live On

"Some people live on water." That sentence could mean so many things...here are a few possible interpretations: 1) Some people need water to survive (although this isn't my favorite interpretation because EVERYONE needs water to survive), 2) Some people reside in houses that float on water, and 3) Some people reside in houses, on land, ABOVE water. Today, I will address option number 3, by describing the strange and mysterious geological formation known as the AQUIFER.

You may say, "aquifer? WHATEVER!" If you said that, you probably mean to say this, "aquifer? WhATEvR!" And you would be right to say that, because, for example, in the United States, we derive 30% of our ground water from a SINGLE, GIGANTIC aquifer that has an awesome name: the Ogallala aquifer. According to wikipedia, this aquifer covers 174,000 square miles in the center of the United States, and it lies underneath eight states: South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. That is one big aquifer.

But what exactly IS an aquifer? I like to imagine that it is an underground lake...but it really isn't...apparently it is more like an underground gravel pit...a WET underground gravel pit, surrounded on all sides (top and bottom) by hard, dense rock that doesn't allow water to easily move through it (in contrast to the gravel). The Ogallala aquifer formed a long time ago (2-6 million years ago), after the Rocky Mountains were born, when erosion from streams carried loose rocky material down from the mountains and deposited it in the low-lying areas of the ancient landscape. It would eventually look something kind of like this (from the waterencyclopedia.com website):
There is a ridiculous amount of water beneath our feet (from Wikipedia, the US Geological Survey estimates that it contained roughly 2,925,000,000 acre-feet of water in 2005)! The scale of it is illustrated in this image taken from Wikipedia:

But in a recent article from the New York Times, and in basically ANYTHING you read about the Ogallala aquifer, you will learn that we are pumping water OUT of this aquifer (into water towers perhaps?) at a rate that far exceeds the rate at which water flows back into it. The wikipedia article says that at the times of heaviest consumption, parts of the aquifer were drained by 5 feet per year. At the same time, water was flowing back into the aquifer at a maximum rate of 6 inches per year (and in many areas, like Texas and New Mexico rates on the order of 0.02 inches per year).

There WAS a ridiculous amount of water beneath our feet, as illustrated by THIS image from Wikipedia:
There are certain aspects of our unsustainable life-style, as humans, and especially as Americans, that are sometimes (unfortunately) relatively easy to ignore because the signs of their consequences remain abstract. But I have never seen such consensus on any issue regarding the environment...if we don't change or stop our currently unsustainable farming practices (growing too much corn, in areas that don't have the climate to support it, for example) the Ogallala aquifer WILL run dry, SOON (according to Wikipedia, in as soon as 25 years). Although I believe in global warming, and I know that many of the resources we take for granted are limited, these still exist largely as ideas in my head. In a strange way, it was almost a pleasure for me to become aware of the Ogallala aquifer, because it is clear, it is indisputable, and it is occurring on a time-scale that will be felt within my generation. I think what pleased me is this: few things in life are so clear, and we should be thankful that, for once, we have a clue as to what path we should take forward. (A path other than the one we are currently on).

This Must Be The Place

There is a lot going on these days! One of the most notable things among that lot is that my sister is trying to decide where she will work as a PROFESSIONAL nurse practitioner. Yep, she recently went pro, and she has been deciding between the top two nursing teams in the southwest: The Texas Tourniquets and the New Mexico Naloxones. As she makes her decision to sign with one of these teams, I wanted to share this video to cheer her on, and to remind her that wherever she goes, we won't be far behind her:

Water Too Must Fall...

Imagine this: you and me...and the internet? It could happen. Maybe it IS happening. Maybe even right now. And if you listen closely, you will hear me whisper this question: "how much do you need water?" And then you will hear me answer that question for you, even before you get a chance to respond: "more than lip balm!" (I may or may not whisper that part). Here is my evidence:


How could los tres amigos have avoided this predicament? Before I get a chance to write it, I imagine you all standing on your chairs, bending at your hips, clenching your fists, spraying beads of foamy spit onto your glowing computer screen as you shout, "With a modern water distribution system!"

I always find it incredible how much we think alike.

What is more modern than gravity? Electricity. What single invention provides water reliably to entire neighborhoods AND incorporates two opposite things like "the new" and "the old" better than Dairy Queen combines Hot and Cold? I won't even answer this question because it is so obvious. I will just transition abruptly into the middle of a sentence at the end of a 600 word essay that assumes you know the answer...because I ASSUME that you do.

...and that is how Isaac Newton discovered the emerging and lucrative industry of Water Towers.

What I will not assume is that you know how a water tower works. I am not ashamed to admit that I didn't know how they worked before I began a thorough investigation of free online encyclopedias including Wikipedia and HowStuffWorks. It is actually pretty clever and surprisingly straight-forward:

Water towers are tall. That's what makes them towers. What happens if you put water in a BIG tank on top of a tower and then poke a hole in that tank? Well gosh darn it, that water is gonna go down to the ground. The ground from whence it came. But how on earth did it get up there in the first place? Electricity and pumps. For this it helps to see a diagram (from HowStuffWorks.com):



Here: A is the water coming from the water treatment plant, B is the electric pump that pushes water up the water tower or into the municipal water system, D is the water tower, and C is the water outlet towards the sinks and showers of town.

But why would ANYBODY want to put water up in a big tank and waste all that electricity putting it up there? Well the answer is: to SAVE electricity. As you can imagine, there are some times of the day when the demand for water is quite high...these are times when most people shower, water golf courses, use slip'n'slides etc. If electric pumps had to pump all the water during these peaks in demand, they might not be able to keep up, that's why people use water towers. If you give gravity the chance to back up its friend electricity, the two of them are essentially unstoppable.

Except when one of them stops...and the one that stops is typically electricity...as gravity is FAIRLY reliable, in my experience. And this is another case in which it is desirable to have a water tower: power outages. If electricity gets tired - and it sometimes does during windstorms and other times when electricity fails - gravity is there to provide the force to push water down from the water tower through the pipes and onto your slip'n'slide.

When the electricity comes back on, or the demand for water decreases, the pumps that normally provide water to the city, can refill the water tower in preparation for the next windstorm or the next time somebody builds a water park in the middle of the desert. Some of the comments about this water park are pretty funny.

The higher the water tower, the more pressure you get out at the bottom. According to wikipedia...and the universe...every 30 meters of elevation in a water tower can generate a water pressure of 43.5 psi down on the ground where you and I need it. Municipal water supplies typically run at a pressure of 50-100 psi, and household appliances require pressures of 20-30 psi.

In addition to their functional value, water towers are essentially billboards filled with water. Typically they advertise the town in which they are built. Sometimes people paint silly things on them. For example here or here or maybe my favorite here. Other water towers look like spaceships.

Having realized that water towers aren't boring tanks of water in the sky, but active members of their communities, I have become more aware and appreciative of their existence. And that is how Isaac Newton discovered the emerging and lucrative industry of Water Towers.

Beyond the Internet?

Well, it has been a while, but not so long that I forgot how to write words using letters. I still have that going for me. These last few months have been extremely busy. I've been learning a lot of facts... maybe not a lot in terms of number...but certainly in terms of size...these facts are so big, in fact, that they will not fit into the internet. Dang. "The internet is big," you say? I agree. Well, think bigger. And then double it.

Do that, and then, ask yourself, what could be so important? The answer to that is almost certainly: nothing. There is no single thing too big for the internet. There is nothing the internet doesn't know, nothing too personal for the internet, nothing too private. There is no emotion that the internet has not felt. It knows nudity, without a doubt, and from a brief survey of Facebook pictures, I would estimate that the internet is well acquainted with beer pong and 80's neon dance parties. But beyond that, take a glance at the wide world of myspace pages, especially those of teenagers, not bands, and you will see their loneliness, fear, anger, and isolation as well as their hope and humor. Just imagine all of the emails that people are sending to one another...emails between relatives, friends, colleagues, enemies, responses to classified ads, craigslist postings, as well as all of the emails that we receive from people we don't know offering to help us improve our confidence AND our love life. We can't imagine it. The internet must not only imagine it, but see it, and remember it. It is our infinite sum: unbelievably wretched and beautiful.

This has a number of statistics about internet usage in the last few years. It is incredible what a powerhouse Facebook is:



And for those of you who don't believe me when I say that the internet is big enough for everything, this video is a good starting point for an internet adventure:

Slow Motion and Up Close

There are few things in the world that I enjoy more than watching water move in slow motion...and if I had to identify something that I did enjoy more, it MIGHT be seeing small things at high magnification. And to that, my friends, I say, "why make me choose? Why can't I have both?" Well, the answer is that I can...WE can:



This is a video of a microfluidics chip...also slow motion liquid at high magnification. So cool.

A loss of confidence...

Alright. So I'm sorry. But you all have so many better things to do than to read this blog, so I don't feel too bad. I especially don't feel bad because there is a good chance that everything I am about to write is something you all most likely learned when you were in elementary school. I MUST have learned it at one point too, but clearly it didn't stick. This may make you lose any misplaced confidence you may have had in my knowledge of topics related to science, but that is a good thing, because then at least we all know what we are dealing with. In this case, we are dealing with someone (me) who has assumed this role of disseminating information that is only SLIGHTLY more trustworthy than the content of a textbook...if by "textbook" I mean a "Texasbook" .

Like I said: I should have known this, but I didn't.

You have probably seen the moon. If you have seen the moon, you may have noticed that its apparent shape in the night sky changes on a daily basis. If you are a REAL smarty pants you may have even heard words like "waxing" or "waning" or "crescent" or "gibbous." These are good words. Important words. A waxing moon is increasing in size, and a waning moon is decreasing in size. A crescent moon has a concave curve, while a gibbous moon has a convex curve. These are things that people know, for the most part. And many people also understand WHY these shapes occur... but I did not. I'm not too proud to admit it. I always assumed that the phase of the moon, that is the "fullness" of the moon, was simply determined by the shadow of the earth on the moon...but this explanation wasn't satisfying to me because I couldn't figure out how the earth, a spherical object, could cast a shadow on the moon that was anything other than round. How could the shadow of the earth create a gibbous moon, a moon that is more than half full, with a CONCAVE shadow?

It didn't add up. But luckily there are resources on the internet that can explain this phenomenon in a single figure, such as the one presented below from the website www.moonconnection.com.


So really the earth's shadow has nothing to do with it (except in the case of a lunar eclipse)! Half of the moon is always illuminated by the sun...what changes is our perspective on the moon as it orbits the earth!!! The inner circle of moons shows how the moon is ACTUALLY illuminated over the course of a cycle, and the dotted radii in the diagram show our changing perspective over the course of a lunar cycle. This changing perspective is responsible for the shapes we can see in the diagram's outer circle of moons. And finally, finally, finally I understand how it is possible to have a gibbous moon. But I still have much to learn about how to walk on the moon: