Nanoplastics found in water sources: an explained topic

By: Tyra Redmond

Nanoplastics are very tiny particles that are smaller than 1 micrometer in size. The health effects of nanoplastics are a complex and commonly misunderstood topic. 

There are variations of nanoplastics that carry their own characteristics. The main two categories are engineered nanoparticles made from metal/carbon and nanoplastics floating throughout sources of water and air. Nanoplastics are molecules that produce a slow chemical burn that creates active oxygen.  

“The equivalence of nanoplastics vary but usually enters the cell membrane, Professor of Duke University, Daniel Rittschof, said. The chemical properties determine where the particle ends up, the effects are very similar to inhaling buckyballs.”

Buckyballs are carbon balls full of nanoparticles fused into the shape of a soccer ball. The molecule is usually hollow and breathable through air from dust particles. 

“You have to consider regular nanoplastics can act like a buckyball because they bind to other molecules,” Rittschof said. 

Rittschof’s research on underwater sea life has proven the instant impact nanoparticles have on the brain and other organs of fish. 

Most people associate nanoplastics with packaging contamination from the bottling process. However, engineers generate nanoparticles that can be found in the air and smartphones. 

“We don’t deal with nanoplastics at all. Our focus is groundwater and it’s uncommon to find or look for nanoplastics during our water testing process,” Vice President of Dublin Chamber water operations, Tyler Chester said. 

Most water filtration companies disinfect their water with chlorine or a UV light to balance pH levels. Ideally, surface water deals with microorganism intrusion.

Similarly, striking a nanoparticle with light can make reactive oxygen species bind to DNA, or break down.

At the Statesboro wastewater plant, technicians conduct a daily test run for the water's dissolved oxygen content. 

“By testing the pH, we can see the water improvements that are helping the fish as a result of the process control,” Wastewater lab specialist Brain Smith said. Our purpose is to improve the water quality before it goes into the river. In reality, we’re environmentalists."

Hence, wastewater is reusable water until it tests positive for a particular type of bacteria. 

“The number of nanoparticles in our water is only exceeded by the number of nanoparticles we’re breathing, ”Rittschof said. 

Carbon filters, reverse osmosis, and some UV  filters are commonly used to extract nanoparticles. However, researchers are still determining their effectiveness.

“Most of the time it’s not the polymer the plastic is made out of, it’s the compounds that come along from making the product,” Rittschof said.

Essentially, nanoparticles in water bottles come from a plastic that's broken down into smaller pieces.

“A regular plastic from Walmart has between 150-250 compounds of leach, mostly added to maximize profit by using the cheapest material to subsidize, Rittschof said. Plastics taste like food because of all the compounds that leach out of them.” 

Researchers believe city water vs bottled water is highly variable. Therefore, the tinier a piece of plastic, the stranger it is as to what it can do in biology.  

“It’s still questionable what the consequences will be on the human health as it pertains to nanoplastics, Rittschof said. The best we can do is test individual compounds and nanoparticles in the lab.”

Does Alzheimer's medication work

 By: Ariana Walker 

 

Thinking about Alzheimer's the first thing that comes to mind is the loss of memory. The brain typically shrinks to some degree in healthy aging. Many neurons stop function properly which loses connections with other neurons and ends up dying.

The disease progresses to the middle stage of memory loss ,confusion, and may have problems recognizing family and friends. As the disease becomes more severe begin to lose the ability to communicate. They also will begin to lose weight and have trouble swallowing which they will end up needing totally care.

Scientists do not yet fully understand what is causing Alzheimer's disease in most people there most likely is a genetic component. “Just because a family member has Alzheimer's disease does not mean that you will get it, too. Most cases of Alzheimer's are late-onset. This form of the disease occurs in a person's mid-60s and is not linked to a specific change in genes, said Rachel.”

When it comes to the medications there are so many pills that are offered. One of the main medications for Alzheimer's is cholinesterase inhibitors. This drug is only for certain stages of Alzheimer's. To figure out what stages the person is in they will run a test and determine if it is for the patients. 

“One way Alzheimer's disease harms the brain is by decreasing levels of a chemical messenger (acetylcholine) that's important for alertness, memory, thought and judgment, said mayo clinic staff.” 

Cholinesterase can’t reverse the disease or stop the destruction of the nerves cells. The medication will eventually lose its effectiveness. This medicine has the most common side effects which is nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The way to avoid the side effect is to start with a low dose and work up to a higher dose.

The second medication that helps with the disease is memantine. Memantine is approved by the FDA to treat the later stages of the disease. “It works by regulating the activity of glutamate, a messenger chemical widely involved in brain functions — including learning and memory," said mayo clinic staff. It can be taken by pill or syrup. The side effects for this one can be dizziness, headache, and confusion.  

Alzheimer's medicine will not cure the disease, it only can improve quality of life and help prolong independence. Cholinesterase and Memantine are just two main medicines for Alzheimer’s there are plenty more but there still hasn’t been a cure found.

Chinese Privet: The Rapidly-Growing Invasive Species

By: Mya Taylor

February 2, 2024 - The Chinese privet is a fast-growing invasive plant species that harms living organisms, and the difficulty in removing them leaves scientists looking for answers. 

The Chinese privet is an invasive plant species that is growing sporadically through the South Eastern United States. The invasive species negatively impacts native species in the region. 

Lissa M. Leege is a Professor in the department of biology at Georgia Southern University. In 2023, with the help of her husband and undergraduate students, Leege conducted a study on Chinese privet. The experiment took place in her own backyard, where Chinese privet flourished. 

Some living organism benefitted from the Chinese privet. The privet usually produced fruit and a pleasant odor that would attract birds in the wet habitat. Leege also noticed chewing marks left from deer, who eat the privet. 

In the experiment, Leege and students observed the affects of the Chinese privet in the wet habitat behind her home. The group also observed the impact on herb and stem plants. Characteristics of the environment post privet removal were also observed and recorded during the experiment.

Removing the Chinese privet was the challenging part. After Leege's husband removed the invasive species, it grew back rapidly in dense groups. 

The Chinese privet creates a middle tier that blocks the sunlight from other plant species and organisms underneath. After removing the Chinese privet, Leege and her students made a new discovery. 

"When that privet is removed all these things that have been shaded out start to come back. So we immediately saw the restoration of these rushes that should be in the wetland they came back for the first time, I had never seen them before," Leege said . 

One limitation in the experiment was not knowing the conditions of the wet habitat before removal of the invasive species.

"Really a kind of better way to have set up that experiment would've been to take all the measurements before, then remove the privet, then take them after," Leege said. 

Leege believes they can infer that the changes in the environment were caused by the removal of the privet.  

Through their own research, some of Leege's graduate students have noticed a decrease in living organisms beneath the privet. 

"It seems that it's crowding out or it's changing the conditions such that there's very few insects, there's very few small mammals, very few herps like amphibians, and snakes and things like that," Leege said

Leege expressed concern for the potential takeover of the privet in the ecosystem. The complete removal of privet requires constant monitoring and upkeep of the land. 

The invasive species produces seeds that are stored in the soil, making them harder to get rid of. Birds that are fond of the privet can also bring it back from the next-door wet habitat. 

Leege believes that stricter laws should be enforced on the sale of privet and other invasive species due to the harm they do to the environment. 

Leege enjoyed the process of working with undergraduate students for this experiment and publishing their findings. The group will continue to conduct research on the privet and publish more work focusing on privet. 

 

An insight into what an Arctic Blast really is

By: Willow Handley

 An arctic blast swept the United States this past winter as seen in Texas as it reached a low of 25 degrees Fahrenheit. 

 

This kind of weather is uncommon in these regions and raised many concerns for the people who live there. Even though we think of warm weather when we hear the words “climate change”, it getting uncommonly cold is a sign as well. 

 

As stated by the United Nations, Climate Change “refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.”

 

According to an AP News article, Jennifer Francis, a Woodwell Research Center climate scientist, said “When the arctic is off the-the-charts warm (like Now), we’re more likely to see frigid cold invade places like Texas that are ill- equipped to deal with it”. 

 

Because of this, there were many people harmed and forced to live in unfortunate circumstances. People who live in places like Texas and getting feet of snow didn’t know what to expect and therefore didn’t know how to prepare. 

 

There were also many power outages seen throughout different regions. Many families were forced to spend days without heat and even appliances as they had to wait for power companies to brace the cold and fix the lines. 

 

Climate change is due to the polar vortex becoming unstable more often. According to the National Weather Service, the polar vortex is a “large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the earths poles.”

 

The polar vortex is always there, it just gets weaker in the summer seasons and stronger in the winter. Because of the winds flowing through the vortex, even in the southern region of the United States, we can feel that cold air even though we aren’t near one of the two poles. 

 

James Reichard, a Geology Professor at Georgia Southern University, explained that the cold air brings the jet stream, a narrow band of strong wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere, out of whack which creates a wave. This is the reason why it gets cold, hot, and then cold again. 

 

Because of this wave effect, it is predicted that another arctic blast will hit the southern regions again sometime in February. 

 

Reichard also said that climate change is becoming more frequent, but scientists are unable to tell how to help  it. This is because there is not enough data to review. 

 

In order to see a difference in the data, it takes a 30-year time span. Climate change differs from natural causes, so it is difficult to tell the difference within the data. 

The New "Doping" in Athletics: Nano-materials in Sports

By: Emily Potter 

Innovations in technology are always changing the world around us. It is integrated in everything from transportation, education, medicine, and much more. The world of competitive sports is also one of those sectors that has been heavily influenced by the integration of technology.  

Technology in sports has led to greater athlete performance, durability of products, and increases the safety of the sport. It is without a doubt in our modern age that sports rely heavily on hi-tech innovations to increase that competitive nature within the athlete. More specifically, the integration of nanotechnology within sports products and equipment has done that for the athlete.

"Nanotechnology is technology that manipulates the size of matter down to the nanoscale." said Doctor Mujaibur Khan, engineering and research associate professor. "The behavior of materials is different at the quantum level, making matter stronger and durable, but yet still light and flexible." 

This is why scientists are integrating the use of nano-materials into sports. It creates a better product to help with the athlete's performance. 

The use of nanotechnology is not new in a sense. In fact, according to Doctor Khan, nanotechnology has been around for thousands of years and dates back to the Roman Empire. The first uses were seen in metal swords in this era, however, the nano-particles were used unknowingly at the time, Doctor Khan said.  

But the biggest threat to the competitive nature of the athlete is the use of technology itself. There is great debate that using nanotechnology in sports gives athletes too much of a technological advantage and takes away from healthy competition based on athleticism. 

Swimming is a popular sport that is well known for using nano-materials in swimmer's tech suits. These tech suits are infused with fibers that have been manipulated down to the nanometer, making the suit thin and tight to conform to the swimmer, and waterproof to minimize the swimmer's water resistance.  

Katherine Jones, a highly competitive swimmer for nine years, used nanotechnology infused tech suits when she became a mature swimmer. She believes that the use of her tech suit truly helped her as a swimmer, mentally, rather than physically. She stated that she never depended on it to help her athletically though. 

"I believe that it [nano-material infused tech suits]does help increase a swimmer's performance because it gives the athlete a mental boost, knowing that they are using a product that is working in their favor," said Jones." However, I never depended on it athletically though, I always performed on my own abilities and not the suit." 

But, spectators of the sports world are still skeptical of this technology due to experiences seen already in the Olympics. 

In 2008, 98% of the medals won in the swimming competition at the Olympics, was by swimmers who wore the Speedo Full-body LZR suit, according to Scientific American. Due to this, FINA (International Swimming Federation) banned the use of the suit in further games because it is considered an example of "technology doping."  

Technology doping is a newer term coming into play now with the rise of nano-materials in sports. This term refers to the practice of gaining a competitive advantage by using technological sports equipment. 

However, for several athletes they do not see it in this light. 

Marcia Shaw, a collegiate competitive swimmer at the University of North Florida, believes that technology doping does not apply to every competitive athlete. 

"When you go to a swim meet, you focus on the swimmer, you look at their stats and their records, not what they are wearing," said Shaw. "For myself, I think it depends on the sport, with competitive swimming there are only so many things allowed when you step up to a race, and there are already regulations in place regulating some equipment." 

As for the great debate of the use of nanotechnology in sports, Khan, Jones, and Shaw can all agree that there is still much of a gray area of nanotechnology in sports and where the line should be drawn between the athlete and the technology. 

The use of nanotechnology in sports shows the integration of technology and its vast impact it has on all sectors of life. As for the future of nano-materials in sports, what it can do is unknown but has the chance to revolutionize the competitive sport scene. 

Is Delta-8 THC Really Safe?

 By: Hannah Clay

Health professionals are raising awareness of the possible risks that synthetic cannabinoids, especially those containing delta-8, which has become a prominent participant in the emergence of cannabis products, that has raised both questions and concerns. 

Delta-8 Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is found in the sativa plant, cannabis. Delta-8 can be found in both forms of cannabis, hemp and marijuana. 

Due to the less intense intoxicating effects, delta-8 THC, experts caution that there may be health concerns and inconsistent quality control because to the legal gray area in which these substances, which are frequently derived from hemp, are produced and sold.

 

Among the primary worries are the possibilities of addiction and dependency. The reward system of the brain may be altered by synthetic cannabinoids, which could put teenagers at risk for substance abuse and addiction. Health experts point out that the possibility of unforeseen and dangerous side effects is increased when there is a lack of control and oversight in the production of these substances.

 

“What you’ll find in natural cannabis is delta-9 THC, which is more potent than delta-8 THC. Now delta-8 THC is present as well, but in a low amount. The delta-8 vaporizers we have are synthesized,” said James Watts, a smoke shop employee in Valdosta, Ga. 

 

In many states, like Georgia, where marijuana is illegal, delta-8 is legal because of the Federal Farm bill that was established in 2018. The Federal Farm bill allows the sale of hemp cannabis with less than .3% THC. 

 

“Delta-8 is available in gummies, THC vapes, and dap pens,” said Kevin Taylor, the manager of the smoke shop, when asked about the forms of delta-8.

 

Smoking THC is very common among today’s adolescents. Many adolescents think that smoking weed doesn’t affect them, but studies show that there has been an increase in addiction and psychosis. 

 

Little is known about the precise effects of synthetic cannabinoid, delta 8, on the mental health of adolescents. It is critically important to address the possibility that these drugs will make anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions worse in this susceptible group.

 

The brain is developing during adolescence, and being around psychoactive substances can have a significant and long-lasting impact. Despite being promoted as lighter versions of regular THC, delta-8 nevertheless have hazards, especially for adolescents. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the effects of cannabinoids because the endocannabinoid system, which is important for brain development, is very active during this time.

According to Kelly Johnson-Arbor M.D. and Susan Smolinske Pharm. D., “due to the lack of federal regulation regarding the marketing of delta-8-THC, products may be packaged in brightly colored containers featuring cartoon characters, sweet or fruity flavors and candy-themed images that may be attractive to young children and adolescents.” 

There is not much research on delta-8 and the lack of thorough research on the long-term consequences of synthetic cannabinoids like delta-8 is one of the main causes for concern. Health experts warn that customers might be exposed to substances they do not know about, which could have unanticipated or negative effects.

The Cuban "Cannibal" Tree Frog, And Its Effects in Bulloch

 By: Jose Galvan

Biological Sciences building on the Georgia Southern, Statesboro campus, where interviews were held

The Cuban Tree Frog is an invasive species, native to Cuba that eats just about anything that can fit in it's mouth. It has inhabited parts of Florida and has been recently reported on being sighted in Savannah. With an invasive species that can grow to the size of your hand and eat anything it wants, as well as having it's mucus be highly irritable to the skin, one has to ask, how bad is this going to be for us? Are they actually cannibals? Are we able to prevent it? How would it look like if it came to Bulloch County, or Georgia Southern? After a couple of interviews with some researchers of said frog, it might already be too late.

Raymond Kidder is a recent Master's Graduate from Georgia Southern, currently the Life Sciences Program Coordinator for the university, and studied the Cuban Tree Frog in Louisiana. Kidder studied the diets of the frogs, finding out that it really is everything. On top of the normal frog diet, they do, on rare occasion, eat small vertebrates, including their own. Kidder spoke about the effects of places where the frogs invaded. The Cuban Tree Frog competes very well in any environment its in, due in part to its large size, and in turn, displaces any native species in competition. As well, Kidder spoke about the movement patterns, and what the possibility of it is in Bulloch. They've stemmed from horticultural movement, like palms out of Florida, and places with many people, so it wouldn't be too wild to assume they would be popping up here, but Kidder brought up the theory that it's unlikely due to the frog's thermal tolerance, and that Statesboro has enough freezes to stave off for a good while, but as the Earth gets warmer, the possibility increases, or that the frog can slowly adapt.

This differs a little from the findings of Michael Brennan, a Biology Master's student and a wildlife technician for the Jekyll Island authority, who said he already found the frog in Bulloch, in the S&S Greenway. Brennan suspects the disappearance of a native tree frog in Jekyll could be tied to the arrival of the Cuban Tree Frog, though the population there was already scarce prior. Brennan also brought up that in places like Florida, where the frog has been for decades, the native frog is already gone, in failure to compete with the Cuban Tree Frog. With the disappearance of these frogs, it affects local snakes and other frogs that have native tree frogs in their diets, and can't be replaced with the Cuban Tree Frog due to its irritable mucus. While not extremely present, as the years go on, they'll become more common. Brennan talked about "citizen science" and the importance of reporting any suspicious frogs to the Biology department in hopes of deterring the invasiveness.

The problem when it comes to trying to combat invasive species, though, is that it's extremely hard to detect them until they're born. You can't just find a pile of eggs and decide to crush them, and if you see a couple of Cuban Tree Frogs, there might be egg lays somewhere with thousands of eggs as Kidder mentioned. 

Not all hope is lost fighting off the Cuban Tree Frog, but if we do lose, maybe save a local frog or two.

Cats on Campus: Lurking Among Us

 By: Blake Williams

If you have been around the Russell Union, Williams Center, or any of the buildings near Sweetheart Circle here in Georgia Southern’s campus, chances are that you’ve come across a few feral cats. These are not just your lovey-dovey cats, these will stare at you from afar, then run away if you get too close to them. While we see them wandering around in the bushes in trees, one must ask, what effects do they have on our campus?

“While most folks enjoy seeing the kitties around campus, make no mistake as they are incredibly efficient predators,” Dr. Alexander Collier said. 

Not only wild cats, but house cats are guilty of being killing machines when it comes to rats, lizards and birds. This can be worrisome, as Georgia Southern has plenty of critters for the cats to prey on. 

“We estimate that cats in the contiguous United States annually kill between 1.3 and 4.0 billion birds (median=2.4 billion) (Fig. 1a), with ∼69% of this mortality caused by un-owned cats,” according Nature.com. “The predation estimate for un-owned cats was higher primarily due to predation rates by this group averaging three times greater than rates for owned cats.” 

After reading this, you start to think about how many animals are being killed by these cats we have here on campus. 

Do we do anything to try to aid this? Obviously the answer isn’t to take the cats out. Students and staff on campus have been known to try and feed the cats. The problem with that could be if they find a place of constant food, they will stay and breed. As you can see in the picture provided, the cats on campus are breeding because that’s a photo of a mama cat and her kitties. How can we fix the issue? Georgia Southern student groups have been known to get the cats captured and put in a home, but that’s not always the case. If a cat is captured, the Humane Society of Statesboro and Bulloch County shoulder a spray and neuter cost.

“We have taken in cats that were trapped on campus if they were friendly and found them homes,” Carrie Mitchell with the Human Society said. “We have taken in others that were not friendly, but needed to be moved and we have found barn homes for those,” 

There haven’t been any reports on any cats attacking students thus far on campus, but they have been known to lurk from the tree tops. In the other photo provided, you can see that the kittens are watching from a branch, and the mother is behind the bush staring students down as they walk by. If you ever get the chance, just stand outside of the Williams Center for more than 20 minutes and there is a high chance you will see one on the move.

How is the Farming Industry Affected by the Weather?

 Punxsutawney Phil, did not see his shadow on Groundhog Day this year, which would predict an early Spring. Recent studies however, would show that the notorious groundhog has only predicted the weather patterns correctly 40 percent of the time over the last ten years. 

Many would say that this is due to the changing of the climate, and the warming of temperatures. If Phil had predicted an early spring every year out of the ten, he would have had an 80 percent accuracy. 

Climate scientists are attributing this to the change in the climate. While we can say that the climate is always changing, some scientists are now becoming alarmists, stating that the global temperature is going to be substantially higher because the CO2 in the air is keeping the warm air down here on Earth. 

I spoke with a local farmer of all things berry here in Bulloch County who does not wish to be named, who says that he is not a believer in so-called ‘man made climate change’ “The climate is changing, and it always has changed since the beginning of time.” He said. The Farmer also added that when we are claiming that we are the cause of this, we are in a way ‘playing God’ and that is not something that we should be doing.

This local farmer has reported that he has not had a blueberry crop in the last four years, due to an early March freeze that caused these berries to freeze over. There is a certain amount of Chill time that blueberries need to have, but this was last minute ‘hard’ freezes to the Statesboro area. 

I spoke with a farmer named Gerald Keller who operates a farm that produces soil for crops, he runs a test farm. He says that it is all about the Brix number, and all that means is the amount of sugar that is found in the soil. If there is a lot of sugar that is found in the soil, he says that there is a greater likelihood that the crops will not freeze over during the late winter early spring freezes.

Keller stated that he sold a man some of his soil that he makes, and he reported back to him that he had over seventy bushels more than his neighbors did just because he used the soil with more sugar in it. 

This sugar process also helps to keep the bugs away as well. 

He further stated that he now believes that climate change is real, based on the data that he has seen, and collected that he believes that climate change is a legitimate issue that needs to be addressed, and he thinks that The way it can be addressed is by the soil.

So we see that farmers do have differing opinions, and beliefs on if man made climate change is the cause of these issues or not. Each farmer also has his own beliefs on how/if we can change it.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/berry-season-texas-pick-your-own/

TNR or Not, Maybe House Cats Are Just as Bad As Feral Cats

 By: Vanessa Countryman

Stray or Feral cats have been notorious for being detrimental to songbird populations, carrying disease and rapid mating, but does the Trap-Neuter-Return Program actually help these problems?

Several animal rescue organizations offer a TNR program which can limit reproduction. This program legally allows people to set humane traps for cats, and if a cat gets into the trap, they are able to have it spayed or neutered. 

“Feral cats are nuisance animals and they are not natural to our environment, they are not natural to our ecosystem, they are a predator that should not exist,” said Director of Fixin the Boro Sarah Roehm.

Other research shows that it may not just be feral cats that impact wildlife, North Carolina State University researcher Roland Kays, also looks into how house cats do the same. There was a study done, “The small home ranges and large local ecological impacts of pet cats”, consisting of monitoring 900 house cats.

This study showed that when they kill small birds and mammals, their impact is concentrated in a small area, having a bigger effect than wild predators do. 

Spaying and neutering decreases or eliminates aggressive behaviors--fighting, biting, mating--that would spread disease. 

During the TNR process, if a cat is taken to the clinic and it has an observable disease or injury that cannot be immediately treated or maintained, the cat is humanely euthanized to eliminate its suffering and to prevent spreading the disease, according to Deborah Kosina, Spay/Neuter Program and Community Cat Program Coordinator at the Humane Society of Statesboro & Bulloch County, Inc. 

The study also revealed that cats can have four-to-10 times the impact of a wild predator because their impact is over a smaller area, whereas wildlife covers more area. 

“I don't really expect to see significant change in the numbers for several years,” said Kosina, referring to the number of cats still being
TNRed. “It takes time to make a dent in something that has existed so long and for the culture to change.”

TNR cats also receive a rabies vaccine for further disease prevention. And, some research supports the idea that one rabies vaccine lasts for the duration of an animal's life, according to Kosina.

So, TNR is said to work, but house cats seem to be impacting the environmental factors just as much, according to researchers. 

References

Kays, R., Dunn, R. R., Parsons, A. W., McDonald, B. W., Perkins, T., Powers, S. A., McDonald, J., Cole, H., Kikillus, H., Woods, L., Tindle, H., & Roetman, P. (2020). The small home ranges and large local ecological impacts of pet cats. Animal Conservation, 23(5), 516–523. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12563