Perpetual Notion Machine

The immune system might be the most complex and yet invaluable process in the body. It protects our human body from foreign disease pathogens that can wreak havoc to our fragile and beneficial cellular makeup. And vaccines are invaluable to help teach the immune system what foreign disease pathogens to look out for. But what if the immune system cannot recognize foreign pathogens from good normal cells? Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine looks into autoimmunity, that is, when the body attacks itself. Our guest is Dr. Miriam Shelef, a rheumatologist in the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW-Madison. She studies rheumatoid arthritis, one of many, many autoimmune diseases.

Ironically, where the immune system targets areas of infection, in rheumatoid arthritis it causes inflammation, swelling, pain, and deformity of the joints. The feature image associated with this post shows the disfigured hand and fingers of a patient. But rheumatoid arthritis can result in systemic autoimmunity, where the entire body can be effected. According to Miriam, studies and research to find out why autoimmunity occurs have been ongoing for decades. We’ve learned a little here and there, but every human being has a different chemical composition and immune system.

For more information, check out this website about Autoimmune Disease from Johns Hopkins Medical Center.

And here’s a link that talks about rheumatoid arthritis from the American College of Rheumatology.

Image Courtesy: James Heilman, MD via Wikimedia Commons

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If you live in Madison or Wisconsin or the Upper Midwest, you are probably a limnophile (you love lakes). Kicking off the Fall 2021 pledge drive, limnologist / biologist guest Gretchen Gerrish joins host Patrick Sajbel to talk about research at UW’s Trout Lake Station in Boulder Junction.

As the Station approaches a century of research, we look back at the founding and the decade-long Little Rock Lake acid rain project that prompted change to international clean fuel regulations. Ongoing projects study the health of our beloved lake ecosystems. Typical seasonal churning of the lakes is explained as we delve into the exotic realm of exceptional lake dynamics, including the bizarre phenomenon of exploding lakes.

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine continues the analysis of the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. Our guest is Jonathan Patz, who studies the environmental health effects from climate change on the population in the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Sciences at UW-Madison. He is also director of the Global Health Institute.

The IPCC was formed by the United Nations as a committee to inform national governments about the science and potential impacts of climate change. The first report came out in 1990, and successive reports have been issued about every 5 to 6 years. The last report came out in 2014, and this report is the sixth assessment. When asked about what changes have occurred from the first IPCC report, Jonathan first confirms the advances and improvements in climate science. Early on, the scientific results were speculated. But as the science research as improved, so has the proof of the results. A main criteria of climate change is the increase in atmospheric temperature. The reports always compare the current temperature with those of pre-industrial levels around the mid to late 1800’s. This report indicates we have hit 1.5 degrees C since pre-industrial levels. And there has been a slow, but steady increase in temperature since the first report in 1990. But, according to Jonathan, the biggest change in this report is the certainty. Because the science is so exact and accurate, this report asserts that climate change and its impacts are “unequivocal”!

One impact, that the scientists say could NOT have happened at any time but for climate change, is the heat dome that occurred over a large part of the Northwest, including British Columbia, Canada. Jonathan says that Portland, Oregon, reached 116 degrees F. The temperature has never been that high in Portland’s history.

For a general summary of the report, check out this article from United Nations News.

Here’s another article from the World Resources Institute on 5 Findings from the IPCC’s Report.

And finally, to learn more on what Wisconsin needs to do, check out the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI).

This month on the Wisconsin Climate & Energy Broadcast hosts, John Greenler and Jessica James, go into the field to interview Dan Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Nation, farmer, and a leader on the Intertribal Agricultural Council. Dan’s focus on environmental initiatives and Native American tradition and innovation shines throughout this show as he walks with John and Jess around his farm, Yowela Talih, in southern Dane County.

Learn more and donate to the Tribal Elder Food Box program mentioned in the show here: https://feedingwi.org/programs/tribalfoodsecurity/

Photo by John Greenler

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How many of you, particularly those aged 55 and older, think that dementia is inevitable? Dementia consists of a group of diseases effecting the brain, like Alzheimer’s Disease, that tend to progress as one ages. But, to answer the question, no, dementia is NOT inevitable. Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine looks into some of these misperceptions with our guest Nathaniel Chin. Nathaniel studies and treats dementia as part of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. He is also Medical Director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

According to Nathaniel, as of today, only about 14% have been diagnosed with a type of dementia. But much of the discussion centers on a pair of surveys coming from AARP. In one survey about 3,000 adults age 40 and older answered questions about what they know and their feelings toward dementia. A second survey asked similar questions to only healthcare providers about their patients. Surprisingly, there seemed to be some misconceptions of dementia between the adults and the healthcare providers answers. For instance, only 19% of adults responded that they would feel ashamed or embarrassed if diagnosed with dementia. Of the healthcare providers, 69% thought their patients would feel ashamed or embarrassed. Nathaniel adds context to this and other results from the surveys, and to the perceived stigma of dementia.

Also, for those interested in the background to the AARP research surveys, click the link AARP Perceptions About Dementia. This article also contains links to the results of each survey.

For more information about dementia, check out the CDC’s What is Dementia? and the Mayo Clinic’s Dementia webpage.

And finally, Nathaniel has his own podcast called Dementia Matters.

Image Courtesy: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This month on the Wisconsin Climate & Energy Broadcast, Maria Redmond joins hosts John Greenler and Jessica James to talk about the DOA Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy. Redmond talks about the Wisconsin clean energy plan, partnership and collaboration between agencies, and climate justice.

Maria Redmond is the Director of the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy. This Office “leads the state of Wisconsin in fighting the effects of climate change through programs and policies that support the use of clean energy resources and technology.”

Learn more about the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine checks out the Wisconsin Development News Green, a common source of news stories pertaining to the environment, conservation, alternative energy, and the green economy. WDNGreen editor Ken Harwood tells PNM reporter Dennis Shaffer he wants to bring in business, and hopes that business would want, to be a part of solving our environmental problems, like water pollution, bad air, etc. The articles that he gathers have a wide range of topics. Just the last two weeks, the WDNGreen website had articles that included PFAS cleanup regulation, DNRs authority to hold PFAS polluters accountable, smelt in Lake Superior contaminated, letter to editor in Captimes admonishes Senator Ron Johnson’s dismissal of climate change, solar plant in Iowa County nearing completion, and the latest deplorable Wisconsin wolf hunt.

Please take some time to checkout and read the story articles, and to subscribe to their eNewsletter email, by going to their website at Wisconsin Development News Green.

Featured Image Courtesy: Ken Harwood and WDNGreen

From the smallest bits of the atom comes the understanding of the furthest reaches of the universe. Fasten your seat belts as we head into deep space! UW Astronomy and Physics Professor Ellen Zweibel joins Perpetual Notion Machine host Patrick Sajbel to delve into intergalactic astrophysics, dark matter and detection of cosmic rays at the South Pole IceCube research station and in the palm of your hand with a citizen-science  phone app.

Zweibel was honored this year with membership in the National Academy of Sciences for studies of the way magnetic fields shape the universe, including the physics of cosmic rays hurled into the universe from stars and galaxies. She is one of 59 women (the largest group ever) elected to the academy, one of the highest honors that can be conferred on an American scientist.

Photo courtesy of IceCube/NSF

This month on the Wisconsin Climate & Energy Broadcast, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes joins hosts John Greenler and Jessica James to discuss the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change and the corresponding report. The report, issued in December 2020, identified 55 strategies to find climate solutions for Wisconsin. Learn more about the report, or read it here.

Mandela Barnes serves as Wisconsin’s 45th Lieutenant Governor. He is the first African American to serve as a Lieutenant Governor in Wisconsin, and the second African American to ever hold statewide office. The lieutenant governor uses a platform of sustainability and equity to fight for solutions that invest in opportunities and fairness for every child, person, and family in Wisconsin, regardless of zip code. Read his full bio here.

The Sars CoV-2 coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19, has been with us for about a year and a half, causing havoc everywhere, and a challenge to the science research community to try to solve this health crisis. A lot has been learned about COVID-19, what has been done to mitigate it, and what needs to happen, hopefully, to prevent another outbreak. On that last point, the Rockefeller Foundation has established the pandemic prevention institute with a group of academic, private, and non-profit organizations to collaborate with each on disease research. And UW-Madison is one of those groups.

So, tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine welcomes Shelby O’Connor from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Shelby has worked with several other labs at UW-Madison on several specific areas of study, one of which she refers to as passive surveillance. This monitors various environments, such as waste water and, more importantly, the air in places like schools and malls. Then, they test to see if the genome of the disease is present. Not only has UW-Madison research helped sequence the COVID-19 virus, they have developed more and more effective and faster testing methods.

Please listen to the audio of the show above to hear more from Shelby on what we’ve learned from COVID-19 and how we can applying what we’ve learned to prevent another pandemic.

Image courtesy: Trnava University from Unsplash