members of the american institute of chemical engineers and the driving force behind the creation of the chemical engineering practice school at the massachusetts institute of technology in 1920. little was far ahead of his time in recognising the importance of long - term industrial research. the turn of the century saw rapid industrial development and process design, but corporate r & d remained an intermittent and hap - hazard affair, stopping and starting on a project - by - project basis. little was an early and vociferous proponent of organised, longterm r & d, both within companies and at universities, which he lambasted for failing to provide adequate equipment for industrial research. the consultancy he set up was one way of filling this gap. little and the people he hired applied themselves tirelessly to improving processes and perfecting products. their tenacity paid off : within five years of its foundation in 1905, the arthur d little consultancy had made a name for itself and ran specialised departments covering fuel engineering, forest products, textiles and more. to the profession, his most lasting legacy is the concept of unit operations. he explained : “ any chemical process, on whatever scale conducted, may be resolved into a coordinate series of what may be termed ‘ unit operations ’, as pulverising, dyeing, roasting, crystallising, filtering, evaporation, electrolysing and so on. ” he added that the number of different unit operations is quite finite – the great complexity of chemical engineering is the result of the variety of conditions under which these unit operations are carried out. almost 100 years later, his analysis remains as accurate as ever. charles edward howard and norbert rillieux the background of charles edward howard and norbert rillieux could have scarcely been more different – howard the younger brother of the duke of norfolk, and rillieux the son of a slave. yet both in the early 19th century made crucial improvements to the important process of sugar refining, making important contributions to the pre - history of chemical engineering. the sugar plantations in north and south america and the caribbean were a major business at the time, and one that could only be operated with a significant investment in slave labour. harvested cane had to be processed within two days in a process that was so backbreaking and dangerous that on average it cost one slave life per two tons of sugar. juice was extracted from the cut cane by crushing it in a three - roller mill, initially driven by mules and later by steam engines. a wooden gutter would transport the juice into


on average it cost one slave life per two tons of sugar. juice was extracted from the cut cane by crushing it in a three - roller mill, initially driven by mules and later by steam engines. a wooden gutter would transport the juice into the boiling house, where it entered a series of flat - bottomed copper kettles of decreasing size ( the so - called jamaica train ), in which the juice was repeatedly boiled to produce a thick syrup. milk of lime and ox blood were added to clarify the solution, and slaves would skim off the impurities, before the syrup was poured into pots to set into semi - refined sugar. howard ’ s contribution was to replace the open jamaica train with a vacuum pan and filter units. reducing the pressure meant that the sugar juice could be boiled at much lower temperatures, cutting the risk of burns and reducing caramelisation and allowing the evaporation step to continue till the sugar crystallised, resulting in much better, purer sugar. rillieux improved howard ’ s vacuum pans further by using the hot steam from the first evaporator to heat the second and so on. this improved the energy of the process so drastically that the installation of rillieux ’ improved multi - effect evaporator paid for itself within a year. both howard and rillieux saw the success of their innovations during their lifetime though rillieux, because of his colour ( he was one quarter black ), occasionally found it difficult to enjoy the fruits of his labour. as for slaves, the improvement in their lot was only temporary : while the improved evaporators made processing sugar safer and less arduous, the increased capacity of the processing plants meant that ever - more sugar had to be planted and harvested – equally backbreaking and dangerous work. but vacuum evaporation and multiple - effect evaporators are still very much with us today. from calculator to flat - screen tv we owe a greater debt to pocket calculators than we might think – for every flat - screen lcd ( liquid crystal display ), be it the tv at home, the mobile phone in your pocket or the computer monitor in the office, is essentially the grandchild of a pocket calculator launched by japan ’ s sharp corporation in 1973. the el - 805 calculator ( no prizes for a catchy name ) was the first commercial electronic device to use an lcd screen. the 1960s and 70s saw the so - called ‘ calculator wars ’ – a period of fierce price competition between


- 805 calculator ( no prizes for a catchy name ) was the first commercial electronic device to use an lcd screen. the 1960s and 70s saw the so - called ‘ calculator wars ’ – a period of fierce price competition between manufacturers of early pocket calculators. one of the main problems of early pocket calculators was their power consumption – the fluorescent display tubes or light - emitting diodes they used required a lot of battery power, resulting in a very heavy calculator that worked for little more than an hour before it needed new batteries. by chance, the japanese tv channel nhk broadcasted a science documentary featuring an experimental lcd display developed by george heilmeier at princeton university. among those watching it was tomio wada, a chemical engineer working for sharp. wada instantly realised that lcd displays could be the solution he ’ d been looking for. but liquid crystals were a scientific curiosity that had seen very little use outside the science lab. nobody at sharp knew anything about them, the scientific literature was sparse to say the least, and it was not even known which compound heilmeier had used in his display. despite this, sharp decided that lcd screens were the way to go. a 20 - strong team was assembled under wada ’ s leadership and given the hugely ambitious goal to have a calculator with a working lcd screen on the market within 18 months. the team tested 3, 000 different liquid crystals and 500 mixtures ; overcame regulatory hurdles, developed a new photolithographic etching process from scratch, to name but a few of the challenges. the team succeeded : within 17 months, the el - 805 was ready for launch. weighing in at 200 g and only 2. 1 cm thick it would fit in any shirt pocket – unlike the competition ’ s 25 cm alternative, weighing in at a full 25 kg. upping the octane to many an engineer the phrase “ it cannot be done ” is like a red rag to a bull. vladimir haensel, process research coordinator with uop, was no exception. haensel was working on petroleum cracking and looking for ways of increasing the octane rating of the resulting fuels – at the time, in 1941, an octane rating of 65 ron was the norm. such a low octane rating makes a fuel very likely to combust prematurely, causing serious engine knock – which in turn makes it impossible to use efficient high - compression engines. haensel was looking for a suitable catalyst for the cracking process


norm. such a low octane rating makes a fuel very likely to combust prematurely, causing serious engine knock – which in turn makes it impossible to use efficient high - compression engines. haensel was looking for a suitable catalyst for the cracking process and was convinced that platinum would be perfect for the job. except, of course, that platinum was extremely rare and prohibitively expensive – “ it cannot be done ” was the received wisdom. but what, thought haensel, if he could make do with a vanishingly small quantity of platinum? what if on top of that he could regenerate any fouled catalyst in situ, allowing him to – in theory at least – run the process indefinitely? his refusal to accept conventional wisdom led to the creation of a heterogeneous alumina - supported platinum catalyst that would very effectively dehydrogenate the hydrocarbons in the c6 – c10 paraffins and transform the resulting unsaturated hydrocarbons into nice aromatic rings. by working with a highly - dispersed catalyst with extremely small platinum particles, haensel managed to reduce the platinum content in the catalyst to as little as 0. 01 %. the so - called ‘ platforming ’ ( platinum reforming ) process was born. the first platforming unit started up in 1949 and is still very much with us – some minor improvements aside. today the vast majority of our fuels are produced through a platforming process. without haensel ’ s determination, we could say goodbye to today ’ s supercars and hello to the backfiring smoke - belching cars of the 1930s. reginald gibson, eric fawcett, michael perrin and dermot manning polyethylene ( pe ) is everywhere. from shopping bags to tupperware boxes, from plastic toys to water pipes and even hip replacements, it ’ s pe ’ s versatility that makes it the world ’ s most common plastic. its commercial success came courtesy of two ici chemists, reginald gibson and eric fawcett, who in 1933 experimented with ethylene and benzaldehyde at high pressure. the reaction yielded a mysterious waxy solid but the reaction was fickle – attempts to reproduce it would as often as not result in a very loud bang and a mixture of hydrogen and carbon. nobody could work out initially why the experiment would result in these quite spectacular failures, and ici eventually decided to stop the research before someone came to serious grief. it later transpired that the key to making the experiment work was oxygen : if


carbon. nobody could work out initially why the experiment would result in these quite spectacular failures, and ici eventually decided to stop the research before someone came to serious grief. it later transpired that the key to making the experiment work was oxygen : if there ’ s too little, nothing happens, too much and the mixture explodes. it had been pure luck that some of the ethylene bottles used in the early experiments had been contaminated with just the right amount of oxygen. with high - pressure chemistry still in its infancy, there was little off - the - shelf equipment, and it fell to the team ’ s resident engineer, dermot manning, to design and build most of the reaction vessels. a key problem was sealing the vessels, as the standard lens ring would not hold gas at pressures above 300 atm – and ici wase working at well over 1, 000 atm here. manning devised a self - sealing wave ring, which used the rising internal pressure to seal the wavy circumference of the ring into its seat, which overcame the problem. full - scale production of pe started the very day germany invaded poland, and a polymer that had been destined for telecommunications cable was used to insulate airborne radar instead. this proved to be an important advantage, as it enabled the british forces to create a radar system that was light enough to place on fighter planes, which helped their supply ships avoid german submarines. vote now for your favourite on https : / / www. surveymonkey. com / s / changedtheworld2011. votes close 9 january 2012. pfizer ’ s penicillin pioneers jasper kane and john mckeen sometimes it ’ s not the innovation itself that matters – it ’ s making it available in quantity and at the right time. scale - up, in other words. ensuring that there was sufficient penicillin to treat the hundreds of thousands of soldiers that took part in the d - day landings during world war ii was not the work of alexander fleming ; it was chemical engineers who made that happen. while many worked on scaling up production of penicillin, it was pfizer chemist jasper kane and chemical engineer john mckeen who arguably made the biggest contribution. the two cracked the problem of production via deep - tank fermentation. since penicillin requires air to grow, the biggest problem was designing an aerated, stirred tank that would reliably and efficiently produce quantities of the notoriously fickle drug. war - time materials shortages forced pfizer to take a huge commercial gamble


breaking the remarkably stable triple bonds of atmospheric nitrogen in order to make it available for ammonia production was haber ’ s work, who developed a high - temperature high - pressure process for the task. it fell to bosch, chemical engineer at basf, to scale up the process. not only did bosch have to find a cheaper way of producing hydrogen, he also needed t find a practical new catalyst ( a task his assistant, alwin mittasch, is still fondly remembered for ) and he had to develop a reactor that would withstand both the high temperatures and high pressures of the reaction, at a time when high - pressure chemistry was still in its infancy and suitable equipment ( reactor vessels, pipes, instrumentation etc ) was not readily available. it is testament to bosch ’ s work that over 100 years later, his process is still in use everywhere around the world, and practically unchanged. full article published in tce 825, march 2010 fuelling a way of life donald campbell, homer martin, eger murphree and charles tyson modern life runs – quite literally – on the products of a fluid catalytic cracking unit. our cars run on petrol, the planes on jet fuel, we pick up our food from the supermarket ( or bring it from home ) wrapped in polyethylene film and wash it down with drinks from a polycarbonate bottle, while standing on a polypropylene carpet. yet this ubiquitous feedstock of modern life in all its aspects would be a lot rarer – not to mention a great deal more expensive – if it wasn ’ t for the workhorse of the refining industry, the fluid catalytic cracking ( fcc ) unit. some 400 fcc units are in operation around the world today. and each and every one of them can trace its ancestry back to one such unit, the model i fcc, which started up in baton rouge, louisiana, on 25 may 1942. the 17, 000 bbl / d unit was largely the brainchild of four chemical engineers, known as “ the four horsemen ”, working for the new jersey company standard oil. they were donald campbell, homer martin, eger murphree and charles tyson. the four developed today ’ s modern fcc process largely because their employer ( and several other companies ) did not want to pay the hefty $ 50m licensing fee for another early catalytic cracking process, developed by the french engineer eugene houdry and the pharmacist ea prudhomme. but while the houdry process was a semi - batch process using


hefty $ 50m licensing fee for another early catalytic cracking process, developed by the french engineer eugene houdry and the pharmacist ea prudhomme. but while the houdry process was a semi - batch process using a fixed - bed catalyst, the real breakthrough for the “ four horsemen ” ( and their advisors at mit ) was to realise that under certain circumstances, a powdered catalyst could behave like a liquid. this paved the way for the continuous process that was so efficient that it not only rapidly outcompeted the houdry process, but remains in continuous use 60 years on. full article published in tce 826, april 2010 rubber, pvc and bubblegum like so many innovations, the success of pvc – the world ’ s second most - used plastic, after polyethylene – is down to an accidental discovery. waldo semon, a young chemical engineer a few months into his first proper job with rubber producer bf goodrich, had meant to find an adhesive that would bond rubber to metal. semon decided to work with polyvinyl chloride, a brittle polymer universally thought to be totally useless. in an attempt to remove the chlorine, semon solvated the pvc with a high - boiling solvent before treating it with zinc or a strong organic amine. “ imagine my surprise when i found that the solvated pvc was flexible, resilient and would bounce!, ” he later said. “ when i later found that the plasticised pvc would resist alkaline, strong acids and most solvents it seemed to me that it would have quite a range of commercial possibility. ” convincing the management of this potential would prove a challenge in its own right, solved through a canny combination of pvc - coated ( and therefore waterproofed ) curtains, a vice president fond of camping ( but tired of leaking tents ) and an ad - hoc demonstration involving a bulging in - try and a decanter of water. today, pvc is the material of choice for two out of three water pipes and three quarters of the world ’ s sanitary sewers, with other applications ranging all the way from credit cards and window frames to electrical insulation tape. semon, meanwhile, didn ’ t rest on his laurels : he went on to develop a process and formula for synthetic rubber – a highly sought - after commodity during world war ii, considering that the war had cut off supplies of natural rubber from asia and germany would not reveal the


t rest on his laurels : he went on to develop a process and formula for synthetic rubber – a highly sought - after commodity during world war ii, considering that the war had cut off supplies of natural rubber from asia and germany would not reveal the secret of producing “ buna - s ”, the only other known synthetic rubber at the time. through hard work and determination, semon and his team developed the ameripol rubber process, which by 1944 saw the us produce twice as much synthetic rubber as the world ’ s production of natural rubber had totaled before the war. full article published in tce 827, may 2010 engineering the sexual revolution george rosenkranz, luis miramontes and carl djerassi not all of chemical engineering ’ s contributions revolve around heavy industry, chemicals and refining. in pharmaceuticals, too, they have made their mark – and one of their contributions to the pharma industry has had social consequences that could hardly have been more profound. if you ’ re a modern woman, who takes it for granted that women can expect the same sort of career path as men and who revels in the liberty of being able to choose if and when to have children, then you, too, owe a debt to george rosenkranz, luis miramontes and carl djerassi. the three – two chemical engineers and one chemist, two jewish refugees from europe and one local mexican – were responsible for synthesising the first synthetic progesterone, which would go on to be used in the contraceptive pill. building on a process discovered by the maverick chemist russel marker, who synthesised progesterone from sapogenins, natural steroids found in mexican yams, rosenkranz, miramontes and djerassi created a synthetic variant that not only was a lot more active, but would also survive absorption through the digestive tract. not that anyone thought of using it as a contraceptive, at least to begin with ; initial target indications were menstrual disorders and, ironically, infertility. even once its contraceptive effect became known, fear of religiously - motivated boycotts caused companies to veer away from the drug. rosenkranz says : “ i went around europe and the world offering the contraceptive, but nobody wanted it. ” a sustained campaign by women ’ s rights campaigners margaret sanger and katharine dexter mccormick, backed up by deep pockets and research funding, changed all that. today, the pill is used by over 100m women ever day.


nobody wanted it. ” a sustained campaign by women ’ s rights campaigners margaret sanger and katharine dexter mccormick, backed up by deep pockets and research funding, changed all that. today, the pill is used by over 100m women ever day. the freedom to choose and time when to have children has allowed women to claim equality in the workplace, and the sharp drop in birth rates in countries wherever the pill is easy to obtain is arguably chemical engineering ’ s greatest - ever contribution to sustainability. full article published in tce 828, june 2010 from fuel hero to climate zero not everyone who changed the world did so in a way we ’ d celebrate. and sometimes, it takes the benefit of hindsight to realise the true impact of an apparently beneficial innovation. that certainly is the case for thomas midgley – mechanical engineer, chemist and chemical engineer – who during his lifetime was celebrated as a prolific inventor with a can - do attitude who had solved the longstanding and damaging problem of engine knock and gifted the world affordable and safe coolants for refrigerators and air conditioning units, as well as a universal safe propellant for aerosols. today, he is described, in a much less reverential tones, as the man who “ had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in earth ’ s history. ” midgley ’ s innovations? tetraethyl lead and chlorofluorocarbons ( cfcs ). midgley had, by all accounts, a brilliantly inventive mind, untroubled by received wisdom and undaunted by even the most complex tasks. when his scientific reasoning sent him in the wrong direction, strokes of sheer luck would deliver the unexpected breakthrough, such as in the discovery of tel. though his hands - on pragmatic attitude makes for chilling reading for today ’ s engineers, especially when it comes to the conditions found in the early tel production plants and midgley ’ s cheerful dismissal of the warnings he received about tel ’ s poisonous side - effects. while there were some early indications of the dangers of tel ( even if they were downplayed and dismissed at the time ), it would take much longer for the side effects of midley ’ s second innovation to become known. for thirty years, cfcs – particularly midgley ’ s innovation, freon – were the workhorse of the refrigeration industry and the propellant of choice in just about any hairspray, deodorant or insecticide spray. unlike the available alternatives, freon


midgley ’ s innovation, freon – were the workhorse of the refrigeration industry and the propellant of choice in just about any hairspray, deodorant or insecticide spray. unlike the available alternatives, freon was neither toxic, flammable nor explosive. at the time of midgley ’ s untimely death at the age of 55, he was highly celebrated and decorated, holder of numerous awards and prestigious offices. his legacy stayed with us for many years more, though perhaps not in the way he and his contemporaries might have anticipated. full article published in tce 829 / 30, july / august 2010 carl von linde and william hampson the liquefaction and separation of air is one of those processes that many engineers worked on over the years, but only one – or rather two – would succeed at. two very similar processes for the liquefaction of air were independently developed in germany and the uk and patented within weeks of each other ; the first by the mechanical engineer carl von linde, the second by a hitherto unknown, classics graduate and barrister william hampson. both used air itself as a refrigerant, exploiting the joule thompson effect, which describes how gas gets colder as it expands. the effect is even more pronounced if the gas was previously compressed and chilled. harnessing the effect in a virtuous cycle, by allowing compressed cooled air to expand in a counter - current heat exchanger so it cools the incoming compressed air to ever - lower temperatures, both inventors eventually cooled the air to - 190ºc : the point at which it turns liquid. it might have taken von linde three days of running increasingly cold air through an incredibly long steel tube which he ’ d packed in wool for insulation, but on 29 may 1895, he eventually got there : “ with clouds rising all around it, the pretty bluish liquid was poured into a large metal bucket, ” he writes in his autobiography. “ the hourly yield was about three litres. for the first time on such a scale air had been liquefied, and using tools of amazing simplicity compared to what had been used before. ” where von linde was an engineer, industrialist and already an expert in refrigeration before he started, hampson was a complete unknown, with no relevant training and no record of what might have perked his interest in sciences and engineering. nevertheless, his process was both simpler and more efficient than von linde ’ s, liquefying air in


started, hampson was a complete unknown, with no relevant training and no record of what might have perked his interest in sciences and engineering. nevertheless, his process was both simpler and more efficient than von linde ’ s, liquefying air in a mere 20 minutes compared with the three days of von linde ’ s early attempts. the hampson - linde cycle gave rise to the modern industrial gases industry, provided pure gases for countless industrial processes and paved the way for the discovery of several rare gases. full article published in tce 831, september 2010 degrees of separation there are those who have hailed chromatography as one of the most significant developments of the 20th century, and yet few people outside a chemistry lab would have any understanding of what chromatography is, or what it is used for. a classic ‘ behind the scenes ’ technology, chromatography is the workhorse of analytical chemistry, and finds extensive use in healthcare, quality control, and drug discovery to name but a few fields. pharmaceutical companies use it to isolate active ingredients and ensure accurate dosing, hospitals use it to identify poisons or drugs in patients ’ blood ; environmental laboratories rely on it to check for contaminants ; forensic scientists apply it to analyse samples from a crime scene ; industrial chemists rely on it to determine the composition of petroleum oil, check the level of additives in foods, monitor pesticide contamination, and so on. key to making the process widely applicable was the adaptation of gas chromatography to liquids. this opened up its use for the separation of organic and biological molecules, many of which are involatile and too fragile for vaporization. that achievement goes to the hungarian born chemical engineer, csaba horvath, the father of modern high performance liquid chromatography. horwath took an early interest in separation sciences and – unusually for a chemical engineer during the 1960s – in biochemical engineering. adapting recent advances in gas chromatography to the nascent science of liquid chromatography, horvath dramatically speeded up throughput and ramped up sensitivity while reducing the size of the equipment. today, hplc is so sensitive that the characteristic patterns of peaks not only identify different molecules in a sample, but – thanks to very subtle differences in production processes and batch chemistry that give chemicals a very unique “ fingerprint ” also the production plant they came from. csaba horvath may not be a household name, but without him, the world would be a


thanks to very subtle differences in production processes and batch chemistry that give chemicals a very unique “ fingerprint ” also the production plant they came from. csaba horvath may not be a household name, but without him, the world would be a much scarier place. full article published in tce 832, october 2010 man of steel if the industrial revolution was built on steel, then the father of the industrial revolution was henry bessemer. it was the bessemer process that made steel available in industrial quantities at an affordable price. patented in 1855, the bessemer process reduced the cost of steel from £50 – 60 / t to £6 – 7 / t and was accompanied by vast increases in scale and speed of steel production. steel girders for bridges, buildings, railroads, skyscrapers – all were unimaginable before bessemer. the same goes for modern steel ships, steel wire, high - pressure boilers ( and with them, the steam engine ), not to mention turbines for power generation. bessemer was a prolific inventor. despite no university education, he patented innovations in fields as diverse as pigment production and ship building. during his experiments with steelmaking, he discovered that contact with hot air would turn pig iron into steel, prompting bessemer to take the – at the time highly counter - intuitive – step of forcing air directly through the molten iron. he was lucky that the resulting reaction, which was extremely violent, did not permanently damage to his workshop. but at least after just 20 minutes of mild explosions, violent eruptions and showes of red - hot slag, bessemer was left with a converter full of steel. once he had convinced himself that there was no way of toning down the violence of the reaction, bessemer channelled his efforts into developing a reactor vessel designed to contain the violent inferno with some degree of reliability and safety. the result : the bessemer converter. this in turn prompted the rise of steel as a ubiquitous construction material, driving the second industrial revolution, and made henry bessemer a very, very wealthy man indeed. full article published in tce 833, november 2010


photographs by ken richardson diagnostics for all, a nonprofit in cambridge, massachusetts, is making a test for liver damage that could cost just pennies. it consists, remarkably, of a stamp - size square of paper with wells that change color when a drop of blood is applied. the test could provide an enormous benefit in poor countries, where liver damage is widespread as a side effect of drugs administered to hiv and tuberculosis patients. ( as many as one - fourth of people taking antiretroviral drugs in the poor world develop liver problems — five times the rate elsewhere. ) the liver function tests administered regularly in the developed world require tubes of blood, lab equipment, and electricity. the paper chip from diagnostics for all needs none of that. the test uses patterned channels and wells to allow for filtering and multistep reactions ; the technology originated in the lab of harvard chemist george whitesides, who pioneered this method, and was licensed from harvard ( see “ paper diagnostics ” ). the paper absorbs sample fluids and uses capillary action to convey them to the test wells imprinted on it. these wells are spotted with chemicals that change color when they react with certain markers in a liquid. the chip is meant to work simply with little additional equipment, making it suitable for the poorest regions. “ this is a world in which there are very few resources — that is to say, almost no money, very few doctors, no electricity in many places, no refrigeration, ” whitesides says. “ the conditions are such that it ’ s very difficult to imagine how you deliver even pretty straightforward health care. ” five years after the company was formed, diagnostics for all, which is led by biotech executive una ryan and sustained by grants from the gates foundation and others, is moving toward a viable product. the first trial of the liver test is in progress on hiv patients at a hospital in vietnam. funding, manufacturing, and distribution models are still being worked out, but the company can make between 500 and 1, 000 tests per day at its cambridge facility and hopes to obtain regulatory approvals so that the liver test can reach patients by 2014, says jason rolland, who leads engineering efforts as the company ’ s senior director of research. dfa ( as the company is known ) is working on other paper - based diagnostics : an assay that detects antigens for multiple diseases, including malaria and dengue fever ; a test for preeclampsia in pregnant women ; and even nucleic - acid


is known ) is working on other paper - based diagnostics : an assay that detects antigens for multiple diseases, including malaria and dengue fever ; a test for preeclampsia in pregnant women ; and even nucleic - acid tests to detect pathogens in blood. the company is also developing tests that farmers could use to check for foodborne toxins. in all cases, results can be interpreted by a clinician or a smartphone app, after which test patches can be incinerated. they are, after all, just paper. paper is printed with wax to define zones for 55 tests. each test measures two liver enzymes. finished tests include a sandwich of two such sheets. the sheets are baked for 30 seconds at 130 °c to allow the wax to melt completely through the paper ’ s 0. 2 - millimeter thickness. the test wells are wax - free circles two millimeters across. measured amounts of the reactant chemicals are deposited on each of the two sheets. the first sheet gets reagents that react with enzymes. the second sheet ( shown here ) gets dyes that change color if exposed to products released by the first reactions. the two sheets are fused together with adhesives in a press. an adhesive sheet with circular blood filters is prepared. later, this sheet is affixed to the fused paper sheets. only plasma reaches the paper layers. in a final step, a protective laminate is affixed to the top of the package. the completed tests are cut into individual squares. a drop of blood first encounters a plasma filter. the plasma then wicks through test wells on the two layers of paper. test results take about 15 minutes to appear. at left is the back of an unused test ; at right, one activated with blood. the results ( right ) show that the blood has normal enzyme levels, as indicated by the color in the top wells. the other four wells are controls that tell whether the test worked properly. the scale in this guide offers a way to gauge the level of enzymes present. clinicians could use this information to change a drug regimen or order additional tests.


to coax the most out of the human body during training or actual performance, there are certain principles, or building blocks that must be present. good breathing, proper nutrition, hydration and intensity are just a few of these principles. but, at the top of the list is good posture. proper posture extends performance, reduces injury, speeds healing, builds more muscle and increases efficiency. good posture also releases more energy to the primary muscles of the task at hand by not having to engage “ secondary ” postural muscles. what is good posture? for the purpose of this article, the focus will be on postural alignment from the side. normal, neutral posture is present when a plumb line passes through five anatomical landmarks : center of the ear, center of the shoulder, greater trochanter, center of the knee and just in front of the ankle. this is illustrated in the picture on the left. notice how straight the black plumb line is. the most common abnormal posture profile is illustrated on the right. the head sits forward of the shoulders, the upper back has drifted backward and the pelvis has tipped forward. this is commonly known as forward head posture ( fhp ). notice the straight plumb line we expect to see in good posture now has a substantial curve in fhp. it ’ s been estimated that 80 % of the general population has varying degrees of fhp. why forward head posture is detrimental to athletic performance first and foremost, fhp places an abnormal stress on every core muscle. for example, in fhp the pelvis tips forward, causing the hamstrings in back to stretch and pre - load. this tilting also causes the quads in front to shorten and become weak. here ’ s an illustration of that. the hamstring muscles attach to the bottom of the pelvis, the ischial tuberosity. the quads attach to the front of the pelvis. when the pelvis tilts forward in forward head posture, it causes the hamstrings to stretch and the quads to shorten. physiology of the body tells us that a muscle that is stretched and held in that position for a long period of time becomes weak ( stretch weakness ). conversely, a muscle that is shortened and held in that position also becomes weak ( short weakness ). having these two things happen to antagonistic muscle groups is quite detrimental to performance. if one only focused on the effects of fhp on the hamstrings and quads, the need to identify fhp in


becomes weak ( short weakness ). having these two things happen to antagonistic muscle groups is quite detrimental to performance. if one only focused on the effects of fhp on the hamstrings and quads, the need to identify fhp in the athlete becomes apparent. however, due to compensatory changes in the spine and other areas, these kinds of muscle changes occur up the entire kinetic chain, causing compromises in the integrity of the low back, changes in breathing, changes in shoulder positioning, range of motion deficiencies, and instability of the neck motor unit. as far as the professional athlete and weekend warrior is concerned, there is nothing good about bad posture. the posture reprogramming systemtm forward head posture can be corrected. recognizing fhp is the first step in correction. while a quick visual check to see if the head is resting over or in front of the shoulder can provide a visual clue of the presence of fhp, it cannot quantify the full extent of the problem and it can ’ t be used to track progress. to do that, you need a method of capturing and measuring posture. the posture reprogramming systemtm developed by the author utilizes a software program called posture protm to analyze static posture and to track progress over time. by capturing digital images of static posture and using the posture pro software to plot screen coordinates that represent anatomical landmarks known to be either level or plumb in neutral posture, the operator can establish baseline posture. future exams can then track progress by comparing to the baseline values. posture pro has several methods of tracking progress. one of the most effective methods is to create a plot graph of all the exams. yes, you can change posture in as little as four weeks the author has found the profession ’ s biggest hesitation to focus on posture is the lack of posture correction education, either in or out of school. for the past ten years, thousands of doctors of chiropractic around the world have been changing posture using a three - fold approach. first, is spinal mobilization. this is a general spinal manipulation of the spine and pelvis to ensure joint mobility in advance of the changes about to happen in the muscles. second is the patient performing a specific set of exercises and stretches to target the muscles involved in fhp. these maneuvers were developed by john christman, ph. d., and refined by the author. the third protocol is the prescription of a set of posture blockstm ( patent pending ). these foam cushion shapes are designed to use the weight of the


these maneuvers were developed by john christman, ph. d., and refined by the author. the third protocol is the prescription of a set of posture blockstm ( patent pending ). these foam cushion shapes are designed to use the weight of the body, the pull of gravity and the resistance of the foam to stretch and relax different areas of the fhp target area. using spinal mobilization techniques, specific muscle stretches and exercises and utilizing a special therapeutic cushion at home, the muscles attached to the pelvis, shoulders, spine and head can be reprogrammed back to their original neutral positions. in a healthy, motivated person, this can mean a return to neutral posture in about four weeks. reimbursement for posture reprogramming although there is an icd - 10 code for abnormal posture ( r29. 3 ), third - party reimbursement for abnormal posture is rare and is generally considered an out of network service. most insurance companies will allow its use as a compound or complicating code. this essentially means that posture reprogramming is a cash - based service. the fee is based on the results of the posture exam. the posture pro software will generate a posture numbertm, which is the accumulation of deviations from normal. the general fee guideline is $ 50 for every posture number unit of deviation. for the average patient, that would be in the $ 500 - $ 1, 000 range for the posture reprogramming. using the posture reprogramming system, a doctor of chiropractic can market this service to health clubs and high school, college or professional sports departments, as well as private athletes, as a method of performance screening and enhancement. joseph ventura d. c. is the owner of venturadesigns a private company specializing in chiropractic consulting services and software development, he is the developer of the posture reprogramming system, his full bio can be found at www. posturepro. com / bio2. htm. he can be reached at


hyena cichlid ( nimbochromis polystigma ) from the aquarium wiki you can contribute to the aquarium wiki by expanding this article. dont be shy!. 283, 905. 884 ml 283. 9 litres ( 75 us g. ) 9. 055 in 20 - 23 cm ( 7. 9 - 9. 1 " ) 7. 5 - 8. 5 533. 07 °r 298. 15 k 536. 67 °r23 - 25 °c ( 73. 4 - 77°f ) - hyena cichlid - much like its counterpart, the venustus, the nimbochromis polystigma displays similar patterns and colors. the male is generally of a blue appearance with a more prominent blue on the head and gills. it may have slight yellow coloring around the abdomen with a giraffe pattern throughout. generally there is a bright yellow patch that will span from the fish ' s upper lip through to the front of the dorsal fin. the rear tip of the males dorsal fin has a very sharp tapering. the female is typically less flamboyant in coloring. she has the same giraffe patterns but they are usually more prominent markings than the male. there is no blue on the female but a shiny silver with gold pearlecent coloring all over the body and the head is usually a more vibrant yellow than the rest of the fish. the female ' s dorsal fin is rounded towards the tail. - polystigma will happily live among most african cichlids. the males can be aggressive when territory is opposed but generally one of the more placid of the cichlidae family. - this species is a predatory hunter and is best known for burying itself into the substrate and waiting for a smaller fish to swim by where it then will actively attack that fish. - once to twice daily - polystigma prefer a smaller grit substrate - polystigma are ( like most cichlids ) an aggressive predator fish, they generally like to hunt for their food but will accept commercial fish foods. there aggressive behaviour is generally only seen to smaller less aggressive fish. they can also become very aggressive if there is not a good ratio of female to male ' s in the tank. generally it is recommended a 1 : 4 ratio ( being 1 male 4 females ) in any colony. - this fish can be easily identified by its bright giraffe pattern ( in females ) and its bright blue with yellow markings ( in


in england, a 1360 statute authorized justices of the peace to restrain, arrest and imprison rioters. the first modern riot act was proclaimed in 1714. until 1829, parish constables were responsible for maintaining public order, but they were so few and so poorly trained that army troops had to be called out to repress serious riots. the london metropolitan police was created in 1829 to help prevent, rather than repress, public disorders, and in 1856 the police act was passed, with specific military functions distinguished from those of the police and of the magistrates. following the acquisition of acadia in 1713 and canada in 1760, the british army garrison troops in bna replied to requests for acp in accordance with their military regulations. in 1868 canadian laws concerning the police, illegal assembly and riots were enacted, and the militia act authorized calling out canadian troops in acp. british practice generally remained the model. regulations and orders for the canadian militia replaced the british ones in 1870. in 1924 the power of calling out troops was moved from local authorities to provincial attorneys general. from 1796 to 1870 british troops, occasionally helped by local militiamen, provided acp roughly 100 times. since then canadian troops have helped maintain or restore public order 140 times and have helped repress penitentiary riots 20 times. half the former occurred before 1900, usually because of absence, shortage or improper training of police. since 1933, troops have not been involved in strikebreaking except under the war measures act, and all callouts except one have taken place in ontario and quebec, which are the only provinces not policed by the rcmp. over half the penitentiary callouts have occurred since 1962, and in most cases the army did not have to use force. recent research has helped to prove that canadian history has witnessed violence ; at the same time, military interventions have not usually resulted in the use of undue force. see also armed forces : militia and army ; october crisis. author jean pariseau


pitching stride drill by steven ellis, former chicago cubs pitching pro the importance of a pitcher ’ s stride is often overlooked in developing proper pitching mechanics. there are several drills which can help the pitcher develop a proper stride which will allow them maximum velocity, and minimum injury. a pitcher ’ s stride length should be about 100 % of their overall their height. this length allows for maximum extension on the throw. the stride should also replicate a straight line towards home plate. directing the body on either side of the line will force the pitcher to compensate one way or the other, causing extra stress on the arm. if a pitcher is stepping over the line glove side, it will cause his arm to fly open and the hand will drag causing the ball to sail high, and tail inside. if a pitcher is stepping over the line hand side, he will have to crank his hips at an awkward angle to compensate for the mistake, forcing a lot of strain and making the outside corner very hard to locate. the first stride length drill a pitcher should practice involves just the pitcher ’ s mound. the pitcher should draw a line in the dirt parallel to the pitching rubber at a distance equal to his height. then, connect the two parallel lines with a straight line which should be equal to his height, creating an " i " shape. the pitcher can now practice his stride length by throwing with or without a ball with an optional catcher. the main goal of the drill is to make sure the pitcher is stepping even with the dashed line down the center of the mound, as well as planting close to the drawn parallel line ( his body length ). mastering these concepts will allow the pitcher to maximize the use of his legs, and take a lot of strain off the arm. related pitching materials want to learn more baseball pitching drills and practice tips? arm yourself with the most innovative and up - to - date baseball pitching training available. these related pitching materials from former chicago cubs pitching pro steven ellis are guaranteed to help you or the players you coach pitch better and reach the next level faster!


as the world edged into financial crisis, there were repeated warnings that we were headed for disaster. in the end, disaster struck. in many ways, the challenge of climate change has a similar feel, and the alarm bells are ringing just as loudly. but while it was possible to bail out the banks and to stimulate economic recovery with trillions of dollars of public finance, it will not be possible to bail out the climate — unless we act now. yet even when the basic science of climate change has been accepted by almost all scientists, many others still seem to think that it is unfounded, and that the world has more important questions to address. reducing poverty, increasing food production, combating terrorism, and sustaining economic recovery are seen as more deserving of our attention. but this is a false choice, for climate change is not an alternative priority to all of these ; it is in fact a " risk multiplier, " a factor that will undermine our ability to achieve any of these things. for example, ending poverty so that every person has the opportunity to lead a good life is already a hugely challenging ambition, and rapid climate change will make it more so. several studies have set out how climatic change will threaten economic development, especially in the most vulnerable and poorest countries. this will, in turn, damage programs to reduce poverty. food security is already at risk because of soil erosion and the volatility of oil and gas prices that sustain industrial farming, while demand is rising because of population growth and changing diets. climate change will exacerbate this squeeze. according to a united nations environment program projection, agricultural productivity could drop by up to 50 percent in many developing countries by 2080 — not least because of changed patterns of rainfall. these environmental stresses are likely to heighten social tensions. if in the future it becomes clear that the world ' s big polluters knew but did little or nothing about these problems, a whole new generation of resentment might be born. with this in mind, it seems to me that we need to adopt a new approach. surely the starting point must be to see the world as it really is, and perhaps to accept that the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of nature and not the other way around. nature is, after all, the capital that underpins capitalism. the world ' s tropical rainforests provide a powerful case in point. these incredible ecosystems harbor more than half the earth ' s terrestrial biodiversity, on which, whether we like it or not, human survival depends. they generate rainfall


that underpins capitalism. the world ' s tropical rainforests provide a powerful case in point. these incredible ecosystems harbor more than half the earth ' s terrestrial biodiversity, on which, whether we like it or not, human survival depends. they generate rainfall ; they are home to many of the world ' s indigenous peoples ; and they help meet the needs of hundreds of millions of other people. they also hold vast quantities of carbon. but they are being cleared and burned at a rate of about 6 million hectares per year. in addition to hastening a mass extinction of species — many of which could hold the answer to the treatment of human diseases as well as the key to new technologies based on mimicking nature ' s genius — this is causing massive greenhouse - gas emissions, accounting for about a fifth of the total. this is precisely why my rainforests project has expended so much effort during these last two years to help facilitate a consensus on increasing international cooperation to cut deforestation. back in april, i was able to host a meeting of world leaders at st. james ' s palace in london, in the margins of the g20 summit, where it was agreed to establish a new informal working group to look at how rates of deforestation could be slowed as rapidly as possible. the group came back with recommendations just a few weeks ago, and it is enormously heartening to see the degree of partnership that has developed between countries, environmental groups, and companies that are determined to work together toward implementing the proposals for dealing with the underlying economic root causes of deforestation. through providing countries with financial rewards for their positive performance in cutting deforestation ( or for not starting it in the first place ), we would make it possible for rainforest nations to implement strategies for sustainable development more quickly and without having to rely so heavily on the kind of economic activities that cause deforestation. by using — in addition to public - sector finance — innovative, long - term investment instruments, perhaps facilitated by the multilateral development banks, we could restore vast areas of already degraded land to increase food output. at the same time, money would be available for new health and education programs, as well as genuinely integrated rural - development models. in return, the world would sustain the vital ecosystem services upon which we all rely for our economic, physical, and spiritual survival. the idea that the world should pay in some way for the essential utility services provided by the rainforests ( after all, we already pay for our water, gas, and electricity ) is not a new one. but


, physical, and spiritual survival. the idea that the world should pay in some way for the essential utility services provided by the rainforests ( after all, we already pay for our water, gas, and electricity ) is not a new one. but there does, at last, appear to be agreement that this is one way we can quickly begin to reduce emissions and, thus, buy urgently needed time in the battle against catastrophic climate change. through a constructive process, countries have been able to find a mutually agreeable approach that i hope, in the months ahead, will lead to the kind of international cooperation that could make a decisive difference. while initiatives like this will need to be a part of the solution, they are not, i believe, the whole answer. in some ways the climate challenge is not first and foremost due to an absence of sound policy ideas or technology, but more a crisis of perception. as we have become progressively more separate from nature, and more reliant on technological inventiveness to solve our problems, we have become less able to see our predicament for what it really is — namely as being utterly out of balance, having lost any sense of harmony with the earth ' s natural rhythms, cycles, and finite systems. the fact that we generally regard economics as being separate from nature is just one, albeit quite fundamental, sign of this imbalance. forging a reconnection with nature and reintegrating our societies and economies with her capacities is, as far as i can see, the real challenge to which we must rise. the copenhagen summit will, i hope, contribute to a shift at this deeper level, as well as set out the plan for transition to a low - carbon economy based on official targets, policies, and technologies. as things stand, the world is not short of all these — what it does lack, however, is a mindset fit for the situation we face. while time may not be on our side, our ability to cooperate and innovate to find solutions appears to be with us still. we have in the past faced huge challenges and prevailed. this time the challenge seems greater than ever before, but i hope with all my heart that in copenhagen we will be able to exploit these very human attributes to the full. it is the very least we can do for future generations.


reflections : the effects of september 11 are still being felt by educators and students a year later. here some of your colleagues share their feelings about the repercussions of this event. the events that unfolded on september 11 last year were nearly beyond comprehension. we can all remember how every hour, or sometimes every minute, our perception changed on what was happening, who may have did it, and to the impact it would have on us and the rest of the country. while the year since has clarified many of these issues, in some ways the bigger picture remains as changeable as the events of that day. just as it was hard to measure our shock, grief and outrage, so has it been hard to measure the loss of innocence for some children, the loss of loved ones loved ones npl → seres mpl queridos loved ones npl → proches mpl et amis chers loved ones love npl for others, and the near overwhelming desire of children to be able to understand an event that most adults are still sorting out. what is undeniable, though, is that the events of last year did bring changes. the most obvious ones may lie in the textbooks your district has, or will soon buy. of the four major textbook publishers, each has a few paragraphs on the event, and the picture of the firefighters raising the flag at ground zero raising the flag at ground zero is a photograph by thomas e. franklin of the bergen record, taken on september 11, 2001. the picture shows three firefighters raising the american flag at ground zero of the world trade center following the september 11, 2001 attacks.. but for many, these mentions don ' t come close to explaining, or making sense of, the events of that day. help is available for educators in a variety of ways. a new survey taken in new york city new york city : see new york, city. new york city city ( pop., 2000 : 8, 008, 278 ), southeastern new york, at the mouth of the hudson river. the largest city in the u. s. about the effects of september 11 show that girls are more likely to experience psychological problems than boys ; the fourth - and fifth - graders were more affected than older children, and about 75, 000 of the city ' s 1. 1 million students have suffered from post - traumatic stress disorder post - traumatic stress disorder ( ptsd ), mental disorder that follows an occurrence of extreme psychological stress, such as that encountered in war or resulting from violence, childhood


the city ' s 1. 1 million students have suffered from post - traumatic stress disorder post - traumatic stress disorder ( ptsd ), mental disorder that follows an occurrence of extreme psychological stress, such as that encountered in war or resulting from violence, childhood abuse, sexual abuse, or serious accident.. the study, " effects of the world trade center attacks on nyc nyc new york city nyc new york city public school students, " suggests that districts expand existing mental health services health services managed care the benefits covered under a health contract within schools, and develop a citywide system for routine screening and referral for major mental health problems. san francisco state university • • [ created a professional development program, called understanding the world after september 11, for teachers. and brown university created a five - day curriculum on terrorism, which more than 1, 000 high schools say they will follow, according to according to 1. as stated or indicated by ; on the authority of : according to historians. 2. in keeping with : according to instructions. 3. a report in the new york new york, state, united states new york, middle atlantic state of the united states. it is bordered by vermont, massachusetts, connecticut, and the atlantic ocean ( e ), new jersey and pennsylvania ( s ), lakes erie and ontario and the canadian province of times. what follows are the thoughts of educators around the country on the fallout from that day, how it has impacted their lives and school district policies. shelley harwayne superintendent, community school district no. 2, new york city collector of works for messages to ground zero : children respond to september 11th ( heinemann, 2002 ) in any district you have trauma and tragedy... the loss of a parent, a teacher getting ill. to have a situation with such big numbers swept us off our feet.... i think it has caused us to reexamine re · ex · am · ine also re - ex · am · ine tr. v. re · ex · am · ined, re · ex · am · in · ing, re · ex · am · ines 1. to examine again or anew ; review. 2. law to question ( a witness ) again after cross - examination. all our safety plans, our crisis teams, our environmental issues. district 2 is a district where instructional issues are on our front burner noun 1. front burner - top priority ; " the work was moved to the front burner in order to meet deadlines "


, our crisis teams, our environmental issues. district 2 is a district where instructional issues are on our front burner noun 1. front burner - top priority ; " the work was moved to the front burner in order to meet deadlines " precedence, precedency, priority - status established in order of importance or urgency ; ".... this has been a year where we ' ve had to add other things to our agenda. we had to get very good at taking care of all aspects of children ' s lives.... [ we realized ] how important it is to have smart people at the helm of every school. i have smart principals who are not only brilliant but brave. i think [ the messages to ground zero book ] will be a powerful closure. the section on hope is important. it would be a lovely book to read aloud on september 11 - - to tell kids what the children close to ground zero were thinking. people all over the country have asked me to talk about what i ' ve learned. kids need art more than ever. we can ' t ever eliminate the arts from our schools. so many children couldn ' t talk about their reactions, but they could [ express through art and words ] what they were feeling. when i looked at the [ messages sent to new york city children ] from all over the country, kids were using writing for so many more reasons than we thought possible. clearly our new york city kids were writing to bear witness. i think it was incredible to see that children could write to lift others ' spirits. these were not fill - in - the - blank stories. kids had important things to say, and they had the voice to say it. joanne mcdaniel director for the center for prevention of school violence raleigh, n. c. in some ways, the terrorism of september 11 was less of a shock to school districts across the country than it was to others. with columbine columbine, in botany columbine ( kol ` əmbin ), any plant of the genus aquilegia, temperate - zone perennials of the family ranunculaceae ( buttercup family ), popular both as wildflowers and as garden flowers. and other violent incidents prompting districts to pay attention to physical security prior to september 11, the new national emphasis on such security required districts to revisit and update security plans rather than create new ones. importantly, many districts tried to balance physical security with the provision of learning environments that communicated a sense of normal


security prior to september 11, the new national emphasis on such security required districts to revisit and update security plans rather than create new ones. importantly, many districts tried to balance physical security with the provision of learning environments that communicated a sense of normalcy nor · mal · cy noun 1. normalcy - being within certain limits that define the range of normal functioning normality and safety. many districts did take actions to ready themselves to handle bioterrorism and similar types of threats. christie winkelmann kyrene district spokeswoman kyrene elementary school elementary school : see school. district 28 phoenix, ariz. area after 9 / 11, a subsequent bomb threat affected several of our schools simultaneously. kyrene took several more steps to ensure the safety of its schools. these additional efforts involved a parent working committee, two safety audits and a written agreement for how schools and police departments will work together in the event of a crisis. first, the kyrene safety committee - - a group of parents that assisted district schools in developing more comprehensive emergency communication plans - - was created. parents on this committee provided feedback about how they would like to be kept informed in a crisis. the committee recommended district - wide emergency communication parameters that were later accepted and implemented in all schools as well as in the district ' s athletic and on - site childcare programs. david weiss there are several individuals of note named david weiss, including : obviously the events of 9 / 11 have created a new focus in the classroom. we find that students are very interested in learning more about the mideast and arab world “ arab states ” redirects here. for the political alliance, see arab league. the arab world ( arabic : العالم العربي ; transliteration : al - ` alam al - ` arabi ) stretches from the atlantic ocean in the. as a department, [ we may ] develop an elective for students that would deal with the influence of the muslim or the arab world.... of the 31 workshops scheduled [ at nsssa ' s convention in november ], at least five of them are going to deal directly with the aftermath of 9 / 11. [ the terrorist attacks have also ] provided social studies teachers with the vehicle to [ teach ] tolerance. our country was ready for rejuvenation rejuvenation in extreme old age, restored to youth by medea. [ rom. myth. : llei, i : 322 ] apples of perpetual youth by tasting the


[ teach ] tolerance. our country was ready for rejuvenation rejuvenation in extreme old age, restored to youth by medea. [ rom. myth. : llei, i : 322 ] apples of perpetual youth by tasting the golden apples kept by idhunn, the gods preserved their youth. [ scand. myth. in that area. we ' d become a very cynical nation, into our own world and not the greater world and the greater good. [ in u. s. history, ] the focus has not been on the influence of the arab world in our country. now it will. when the curriculum gets to the period immediately following world war ii, we can take a look at the me of israel. the students can see how that one event has implications 50 years later. i started teaching in the late ' 60s - - those were tough times.... it wasn ' t cool [ for students ] to be patriotic. i am a vietnam veteran this article is about veterans of the vietnam war. for the french psychedelic musical group, see vietnam veterans. vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the vietnam war.. students now have a clear focus. they understand why our country has done things in the past. why was there a vietnam? why did our country get involved? they can see [ that ] through terrorism, our country has now become vulnerable. they see it ' s imperative that our country unites again - - to understand that we are a country of many. from many come one, e pluribus unum e pluribus unum ( e plr ` ibəs y ` nəm ) [ lat.. mary minner former school counselor a school counselor is a counselor and educator who works in schools, and have historically been referred to as " guidance counselors " or " educational counselors, " although " professional school counselor " is now the preferred term. rosemary hills primary school, silver spring, md. in my experience of being with children who have felt stressed in a variety of circumstances, including 9 / 11, i ' ve seen how important it is to teach them how to be " quiet on the inside. " [ this ] is a feeling of calmness no matter what is going on.... fear can become an emotion that overcomes and overwhelms us. crisis can be an opportunity to see what we ' re thinking about. what we think about grows. and we


of calmness no matter what is going on.... fear can become an emotion that overcomes and overwhelms us. crisis can be an opportunity to see what we ' re thinking about. what we think about grows. and we become what we think about. " genie stowers associate dean, college of behavioral and social sciences, san francisco state university organizer of " understanding the world after september 11, " a summer academy for k - 12 teachers terrorism ] certainly is a current event, but i think it ' s going to go beyond that. students want to understand what they ' re hearing in the media everyday. [ it ' s ] really pointing out the importance of understanding social studies. the approach we took [ with the academy ] was interdisciplinary. we [ had ] people from a variety of different disciplines come and speak. this cannot really be understood from the point of view within one discipline. kenneth roy director of science and safety, glastonbury ( conn. ) public schools several years ago, districts fell victim to their own form of domestic - type terrorism - - columbine. with this event, we developed terrorist action and workplace violence protocols. after the tragedy of 9 / 11, workplace safety / security was again addressed and upgraded ; e. g., security audits to determine weaknesses in facilities, employee security training, security drills in the form of lockdowns and evacuations, and id badges for all employees and students, to name a few. safety / security of the four walls with the future inside is our mission. gregory thomas executive director of the student and safety prevention services division new york city ' s board of education. as the events unfolded on the morning of sept. 11, 2001, students and staff in schools across new york city were forced to make split - second decisions to ensure their safety. that we were successful in safely evacuating over 9, 000 students and hundreds of staff from eight schools in the vicinity of the world trade center complex and were able to reunite re · u · nite tr. & intr. v. re · u · nit · ed, re · u · nit · ing, re · u · nites to bring or come together again. [ - niting, - nited the other students in new york city to their families, is a credit to all of the administrators and students and to proper planning at the school level. while no school district can ever imagine or plan for a disaster of this magnitude, a very important lesson was


other students in new york city to their families, is a credit to all of the administrators and students and to proper planning at the school level. while no school district can ever imagine or plan for a disaster of this magnitude, a very important lesson was learned in the midst adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point ; " in the midst of the forest " ; " could he walk out in the midst of his piece? " midmost of going through this experience ; proactive planning and creativity are essential elements in ensuring the safety of staff and students during an emergency. stanley teitel principal, stuyvesant high school stuyvesant high school, commonly referred to as stuy, is a new york city public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. the school opened in 1904 on manhattan ' s east side and moved to a new building in battery park city in 1992. ( located three blocks from ground zero ) our south windows faced the twin towers. many of the students witnessed things on the morning of 9 / 11 that weren ' t pleasant. we evacuated just before the second tower collapsed. after that, we had to vacate to annul, set aside, or render void ; to surrender possession or occupancy. the term vacate has two common usages in the law. with respect to real property, to vacate the premises means to give up possession of the property and leave the area totally devoid of contents. the building for four weeks. the result is that some students have had difficulty coping with day - to - day living. the same is true for some of the staff. for example, a fire alarm went off late in the spring, and three students ended up in the guidance office very upset. it was a false alarm, but they were shaken. we ' ve had counselors come in and meet with individual students and talk to groups. we ' ve also established new security measures noun 1. security measures - measures taken as a precaution against theft or espionage or sabotage etc. ; " military security has been stepped up since the recent uprising " security. now all students must present a photo id to enter the building in the morning. we ' ve put security cameras on every door to monitor the comings and goings of every one in the building.


the geological perspective on global warming : a debate dr colin p. summerhayes, vice - president of the geological society of london dear dr peiser, in the interest of contributing to the evidence - based debate on climate change i thought it would be constructive to draw to your attention the geological evidence regarding climate change, and what it means for the future. this evidence was published in november 2010 by the geological society of london in a document entitled “ climate change : evidence from the geological record ”, which can be found on the society ’ s web page. a variety of techniques is now available to document past levels of co2 in the atmosphere, past global temperatures, past sea levels, and past levels of acidity in the ocean. what the record shows is this. the earth ’ s climate has been cooling for the past 50 million years from 6 - 7°c above today ’ s global average temperatures to what we see now. that cooling led to the formation of ice caps on antarctica 34 million years ago and in the northern hemisphere around 2. 6 million years ago. the cooling was directly associated with a decline in the amount of co2 in the atmosphere. in effect we moved from a warm “ greenhouse climate ” when co2, temperature and sea level were high, and there were no ice caps, to an “ icehouse climate ” in which co2, temperature and sea level are low, and there are ice caps. the driver of that change is the balance between the emission of co2 into the atmosphere from volcanoes, and the mopping up of co2 from the atmosphere by the weathering of rocks, especially in mountains. there was more volcanic activity in the past and there are more mountains now. superimposed on this broad decline in co2 and temperature are certain events. around 55 million years ago there was a massive additional input of carbon into the atmosphere – about 4 times what humans have put there. it caused temperatures to rise by a further 6°c globally and 10°c at the poles. sea level rose by some 15 metres. deep ocean bottom waters became acid enough to dissolve carbonate sediments and kill off calcareous bottom dwelling organisms. it took over 100, 000 years for the earth to recover from this event. more recently, during the pliocene, around 3 million years ago, co2 rose to levels a little higher than today ’ s, global temperature rose to 2 - 3°c above today ’ s level, antarctica ’ s ross ice shelf melted, and sea level rose by 10 - 25 metres.


million years ago, co2 rose to levels a little higher than today ’ s, global temperature rose to 2 - 3°c above today ’ s level, antarctica ’ s ross ice shelf melted, and sea level rose by 10 - 25 metres. the icehouse climate that characterised the past 2. 6 million years averaged 9°c colder in the polar regions and 5°c colder globally. it was punctuated by short warm interglacial periods. we are living in one of these warm periods now – the holocene – which started around 11, 000 years ago. the glacial to interglacial variations are responses to slight changes in solar energy meeting the earth ’ s surface with changes in : our planet ’ s orbit from circular to elliptical and back ; the position of the earth relative to the sun around the earth ’ s orbit ; and the tilt of the earth ’ s axis. these changes recur on time scales of tens to hundreds of thousands of years. co2 plays a key role in these changes. as the earth begins to warm after a cold period, sea ice melts allowing co2 to emerge from the ocean into the atmosphere. there it acts to further warm the planet through a process known as positive feedback. the same goes for another greenhouse gas, methane, which is given off from wetlands that grow as the world warms. as a result the earth moves much more rapidly from cold to warm than it does from warm to cold. we are currently in a cooling phase of this cycle, so the earth should be cooling slightly. evidently it is not. the geological society deduced that by adding co2 to the atmosphere as we are now doing, we would be likely to replicate the conditions of those past times when natural emissions of co2 warmed the world, melted ice in the polar regions, and caused sea level to rise and the oceans to become more acid. the numerical models of the climate system that are used by the meteorological community to predict the future give much the same result by considering modern climate variation alone. thus we arrive at the same solution by two entirely independent methods. under the circumstances the society concluded that “ emitting further large amounts of co2 into the atmosphere over time is likely to be unwise, uncomfortable though that fact may be. ” dr colin p. summerhayes vice - president geological society of london and emeritus associate scott polar research institute, cambridge. 8 february 2013 professor robert carter and professor vincent courtillot respond : dear dr peiser, thank you for your invitation on behalf of the


p. summerhayes vice - president geological society of london and emeritus associate scott polar research institute, cambridge. 8 february 2013 professor robert carter and professor vincent courtillot respond : dear dr peiser, thank you for your invitation on behalf of the foundation to reply to dr summerhayes ’ letter about geological evidence in relation to the hypothesis of dangerous anthropogenic global warming ( dagw ) that is favoured by the intergovernmental panel on climate change ( ipcc ). we are in agreement with many of dr summerhayes ’ preliminary remarks about the geological context of climate change. this reflects that a large measure of scientific agreement and shared interpretation exists amongst most scientists who consider the global warming issue. points of commonality in the climate discussion include : * that climate has always changed and always will, * that earth has often been warmer than it is today, and that its present climatic condition is that of a warm interglacial during a punctuated icehouse world, * that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and warms the lower atmosphere ( though debate remains as to the magnitude and timescale of the warming ), * that a portion of human emissions are accumulating in the atmosphere, * that a global warming of around 0. 5°c occurred in the 20th century, but that there has been no global temperature rise over the last 16 years. the first two points are rooted in geological evidence ( as discussed in more detail by dr summerhayes ), the third is based upon physical principle and the last three are mostly matters of instrumental measurement ( i. e. observation ). despite the disparate scientific disciplines involved, all these points are relevant to achieving a quantitative understanding of climate change, together with several other disputed scientific matters such as those that we discuss below. one of the disputed scientific matters is represented by dr summerhayes ’ assertion that cooling over the last 34 million years “ was directly associated with a decline in the amount of co2 in the atmosphere ”. the word “ associated ” is ambiguous. it may simply mean that temperature and co2 were correlated, in the sense that their trends were parallel. but as everyone knows correlation is not causality and whether one drives the other, or the two are driven by a third forcing factor, or the correlation is the result of chance, requires careful analysis and argument. though it may be true that a broad correlation exists between atmospheric co2 content and global temperature, at least on some timescales, it remains unclear whether the primary effect is one of


correlation is the result of chance, requires careful analysis and argument. though it may be true that a broad correlation exists between atmospheric co2 content and global temperature, at least on some timescales, it remains unclear whether the primary effect is one of increasing co2 causing warming ( via the greenhouse effect ) or of warming causing co2 increase ( via outgassing from the ocean ). we are familiar with the argument that the currently decreasing carbon isotope ratio in the atmosphere is consistent with a fossil fuel source for incremental co2 increases, and therefore with the first of these two possibilities, but do not find it compelling because other natural sources ( soil carbon, vegetation ) also contribute isotopically negative carbon to the atmosphere. a second area of uncertainty, related to the point just discussed, is the rate, scope and direction of the various feedbacks that apply during a natural glacial - interglacial climatic cycle. dr summerhayes provides a confident, and perhaps plausible, account as to how changing insolation ( controlled by orbital change ), melting sea - ice and increasing co2 and ch4 jointly drive the asymmetrical glacial - interglacial cycles that have characterised recent planetary history. however, our knowledge of the climate system and its history currently remains incomplete ; some of the forcing mechanisms and feedbacks may not be known accurately, or even at all. for example, we do not yet know whether clouds exert a net warming or cooling effect on the climate. similarly, variations in ultraviolet radiation and high - energy particle emission from the sun, in atmospheric electricity and in galactic cosmic rays may all play larger roles in controlling climate change than is currently assumed, yet these effects are absent from most of the current generation of deterministic computer models of the future climate. the temperature projections made by these models may well be affected by our ignorance of the magnitude, the sign, or even the existence of some of the forcings and feedbacks that are actually involved. thirdly, dr summerhayes also briefly discusses the issue of sea level change. he quotes an estimated increase of 15 m in sea level associated with a temperature increase of 6 – 10°c 55 million years ago. he then quotes a range of 10 – 25 m rise for a 2 – 3°c warming 3 million years ago. to this we might add the further examples of the 125 m sea level rise that has accompanied the 6°c temperature rise since the last glacial maximum, and the 0. 2 - m rise associated with the ~ 0. 5


3 million years ago. to this we might add the further examples of the 125 m sea level rise that has accompanied the 6°c temperature rise since the last glacial maximum, and the 0. 2 - m rise associated with the ~ 0. 5°c 20th century warming. it appears from these examples that a 1°c temperature rise can be associated with a sea level rise of as little as 0. 4 m or as much as 8 m, and all values in between! this indicates an uncertainty in our understanding of the temperature / co2 / sea - level connection that surely lessens its value for contributing to policy formulation. figure 1. temperature curve reconstructed from oxygen isotope measurements in a greenland ice core over the last 10, 000 years ( lappi 2010 after alley, 2000 ). fourth, and last, dr summerhayes says that because orbitally - forced climate periodicity is currently in a cooling phase “ the earth should be cooling slightly. evidently it is not ”. the statement is tendentious, because whether earth is seen to be cooling or warming depends upon the length of climate record that is considered. trends over 1, 10, 100 or 1000 years are not the same thing, and their differences must be taken into account carefully. we reproduce two figures that may be used to demonstrate that earth is currently not warming on either the longer - term millennial timescale ( figure 1 ) or the short - term decadal / meteorological timescale ( figure 2 ). we note also that on the intermediate centennial timescale ( 1850 – 2010 ) the temperature trend has been one of a slight ( 0. 5°c ) rise. in assessing which of these timescales is the “ proper ” one to consider in formulating climate policy, we observe that the results conveyed in figure 2 have little scientific ( and therefore policy ) meaning unless they are assessed in the context of the data in figure 1. figure 2. mean temperature of lower atmosphere : hadcrut4 annual means 1997 - 2011 we acknowledge that the data in figure 1, which are drawn from a greenland ice core, represent regional rather than global climate. but a similar pattern of holocene long - term cooling is seen in many other records from around the world, including from antarctic ice cores. also, evidence for a millenial solar cycle has been accumulating over the past years, and, representing that rhythm, the medieval warming ( also called medieval climatic optimum ) appears to have been both global and also warmer than today ’ s climate


, evidence for a millenial solar cycle has been accumulating over the past years, and, representing that rhythm, the medieval warming ( also called medieval climatic optimum ) appears to have been both global and also warmer than today ’ s climate. regarding figure 2, the data demonstrate that no warming has occurred since 1997. in response, some leading ipcc scientists have already acknowledged that should the temperature plateau continue, or turn into a statistically significant cooling trend, then the mainstream ipcc view will need revision. it is noteworthy, too, that over the 16 years during which global temperature has remained unchanged ( 1997 - 2012 ), atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased by 8 %, from 364 ppm to c. 394 ppm. given a mixing time for the atmosphere of about 1 year, these data would invalidate the hypothesis that human - related carbon dioxide emissions are causing dangerous global warming. in any case, observed global temperatures are currently more remote than ever from the most recent predictions set out in ipcc ar4. the areas of uncertainty in the prevailing argument over dagw are therefore not only geological but also instrumental and physical. current debate, which needs to be resolved before climate policy is set, centres on the following three issues : * whether any definite evidence exists for dangerous warming of human causation over the last 50 years, * the amount of net warming that is, or will be, produced by human - related emissions ( the climate sensitivity issue ), and * whether the ipcc ’ s computer models can provide accurate climate predictions 100 years into the future. in assessing these issues, our null hypothesis is that the global climate changes that have occurred over the last 150 years ( and continue to occur today ) are mainly natural in origin. as summarised in the reports of the nongovernmental international panel on climate change ( nipcc ), literally thousands of papers published in refereed journals contain facts or writings consistent with this null hypothesis, and plausible natural explanations exist for all the post - 1850 global climatic changes that have been described so far. in contrast, no direct evidence exists, and nor does the geological society point to any, that a measurable part of the mild late 20th century warming was definitely caused by human - related carbon dioxide emissions. the possibility of human - caused global warming nonetheless remains, because carbon dioxide is indubitably a greenhouse gas. the major unknown is the actual value of climate sensitivity, i. e. the amount of temperature increase that would result from doubling the atmospheric concentration of


of human - caused global warming nonetheless remains, because carbon dioxide is indubitably a greenhouse gas. the major unknown is the actual value of climate sensitivity, i. e. the amount of temperature increase that would result from doubling the atmospheric concentration of co2 compared to pre - industrial levels. ipcc models estimate that water vapour increases the 1°c effect that would be seen in a dry atmosphere to 2. 5 - 4. 5°c, whereas widely cited papers by lindzen & choi ( 2011 ) and spencer & braswell ( 2010 ) both describe empirical data that is consistent with negative feedback, i. e. sensitivity less than 1°c. the conclusion that climate sensitivity is significantly less than argued by the ipcc is also supported by a range of other empirical or semi - empirical studies ( e. g., forster & gregory, 2006 ; aldrin et al., 2012 ; ring et al., 2012 ). gathering these various thoughts together, we conclude that the risk of occurrence of damaging human - caused global warming is but a small one within the much greater and proven risks of dangerous natural climate - related events ( not to mention earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and landslides, since we are dealing here with geological topics ). moreover, the property damage and loss of life that occurred in the floods in the uk in 2007 ; in the 2005 katrina and 2012 sandy storms in the usa ; and in deadly bushfires in australia in 2009 and 2013 all attest that even wealthy and technologically sophisticated nations are often inadequately prepared to deal with climate - related hazard. the appropriate response to climate hazard is to treat it in the same way as other geological hazards. which is to say that national policies are needed that are based on preparing for and adapting to all climate events as and when they happen, and irrespective of their presumed cause. every country needs to develop its own understanding of, and plans to cope with, the unique combination of climate hazards that apply within its own boundaries. the planned responses should be based upon adaptation, with mitigation where appropriate to cushion citizens who are affected in an undesirable way. the idea that there can be a one - size - fits - all global solution to deal with just one possible aspect of future climate hazard, as recommended by the ipcc, and apparently supported by dr summerhayes on behalf of the geological society, fails to deal with the real climate and climate - related hazards to which all parts of the world are episodically exposed


climate hazard, as recommended by the ipcc, and apparently supported by dr summerhayes on behalf of the geological society, fails to deal with the real climate and climate - related hazards to which all parts of the world are episodically exposed. professor robert ( bob ) carter professor vincent courtillot 14 february 2013 aldrin, m. et al. 2012. bayesian estimation of climate sensitivity based on a simple climate model fitted to observations on hemispheric temperature and global ocean heat content. environmetrics, doi : 10. 1002 / env. 2140. alley, r. b. 2000. the younger dryas cold interval as viewed from central greenland. quaternary science reviews 19 : 213 – 226 forster, p. m. & gregory, j. m. 2006. the climate sensitivity and its components diagnosed from earth radiation budget data. journal of climate 19, 39 - 52. lappi, d. 2010. 65 million years of cooling lindzen, r. s. & choi, y - s. 2011. on the observational determination of climate sensitivity and its implications. asia - pacific journal of atmospheric sciences 47, 377 - 390. ring, m. j. et al. 2012. causes of the global warming observed since the 19th century. atmospheric and climate sciences 2, 401 - 415. spencer r. w. & braswell, w. d. 2010. on the diagnosis of radiative feedback in the presence of unknown radiative forcing. journal of geophysical research 115, d16109.


software developer google has open sourced its zopfli data compression algorithm. google encourages its engineers to work on personal projects as part of their " 20 percent time " and occasionally some of those are made public and open sourced for third party developers. that ' s why the firm has open sourced its zopfli data compression algorithm, claiming it produces three to eight percent smaller files compared to zlib. google ' s zopfli algorithm is based on the deflate algorithm but has been optimised to produce smaller file sizes at the expense of compression speed. the firm said the compression library, written in c, is based on iterative entropy modelling and a shortest path algorithm, adding that it is bit - stream compatible, meaning that it can be used with gzip, zip and most importantly http requests. lode vandevenne, a software engineer on google ' s compression team who implemented the zopfli algorithm said, " due to the amount of cpu time required - two to three orders of magnitude more than zlib at maximum quality - zopfli is best suited for applications where data is compressed once and sent over a network many times. " ultimately vandevenne ' s algorithm might be costly when it comes to cpu cycles for compression - he claims there is no performance hit in decompression - but the fact is that cpu cycles are significantly cheaper than network bandwidth. developers such as opera have worked hard on web compression to speed up webpage rendering in markets where 3g connectivity is patchy or non - existent. source code for the zopfli data compression library is available here. µ companies need to rate limit posts based on keywords, warns trend micro uses 20 percent less power than traditional systems sign up for inqbot – a weekly roundup of the best from the inq


using short, self - assembling bio - degradable protein nanofibres impregnated with a blood - vessel growth factor, scientists have been able to prevent some of the negative changes that occur in the heart following a heart attack and boost cardiac recovery. writing in science translational medicine, yi - dong lin and his colleagues at the academica sinica in taiwan made a biochemical cocktail containing the growth factor vegf ( vascular endothelial growth factor ), which promotes the growth of new vessels, and some artificial protein sequences called oligopeptides which plait themselves into short, biocompatible nanofibres when exposed to the salt solution found in body fluids. the idea was to inject this mix into regions of the heart injured by a heart attack. these fibres would then behave like a slowly - squeezed sponge, steadily releasing the vegf to boost the blood supply to the damaged area while also providing structural support. a group of heart - attack afflicted rats were injected with the nanofibre - growth factor mixture at the injury sites in their hearts. a second group of control rats received just vegf or saline injections without any protein nanofibres. a month later, the nanofibre - vegf - treated animals had significantly better cardiac function, showing fewer signs of heart failure, smaller injury sites and less pathological deposition of fibrous tissue compared with the controls. repeated on pigs, a much closer correlate to humans, the results were the same. the sustained release of vegf, the team found, was promoting the formation of nourishing arteries, while the nanofibre structures themselves were encouraging stem cells, both from the blood and from elsewhere in the heart, to migrate into and persist within the heart attack site, helping to promote vessel formation, enact repair and prevent the deposition of harmful fibrous tissue. according to the team, the nanofibres create a three - dimensional vascular niche that captures circulating cells capable of promoting repair and also provides a scaffold, stabilising the development of new small arteries, to nourish the site. the nanofibres themselves, the team found, breakdown slowly as the heart repairs itself. about 70 % of the injected material still remained one month after injection. " in conclusion, " they say, " nfs are able to create an in - vivo microenvironment for cardiovascular regeneration and also provide positive therapeutic effects after mi in both small and large animals...


chinese orbital docking starts long march to space station us commie hunt jumpstarted taikonaut takeoff china has successfully launched an unmanned capsule into orbit and is beginning to maneuver it into place for the nation ’ s first orbital docking. state media reports that a shenzhou - 8 capsule successfully blasted off from china ’ s launch platform in the gobi desert atop an upgraded long march - 2f rocket, watched by chinese vice premier zhang dejiang. it was successfully inserted into its planned orbit, and ground control is now beginning to shift it into position to dock with the tiangong - 1 – " heavenly palace - 1 " – module that has been in orbit since september. if all goes to plan, the capsule will perform china ’ s first space docking in two days ’ time, 343km above the planet ’ s surface. after a number of practice docking maneuvers, the capsule will then return to earth for examination and testing. successful docking will be crucial if china is to reach its goal of putting a space station into orbit by 2020. under the plans that are currently public, the station will be a small affair in comparison to the international space station or the de - orbited soviet mir platform – but out of tiny acorns mighty oak trees grow. in pure technology terms, the chinese space program looks relatively unsophisticated. after all, us astronaut neil armstrong managed the first space docking in 1966 during the gemini 8 mission. the soviets managed it in 1969, and by 1975 the two countries were docking with each other ’ s crafts. it wasn ’ t until 1970 that china even got a satellite into orbit – although it ’ s now been selling orbital delivery to other countries for over 25 years. the middle kingdom wouldn ’ t have made it this far if it hadn ’ t been for the 1950s mccarthy - era panic over communist infiltration in america. qian xuesen, one of america ’ s foremost rocket engineers in the 1930s and 1940s, and cofounder of the jet propulsion laboratory in the us, was arrested in the us after visiting his parents on mainland china in 1950. accused on the flimsiest of evidence of being a communist, and despite the strong efforts of his university, caltech, qian was deported to china in 1955. qian, who died at the age of 98 in 2009, is hailed as the father of chinese rocketry, and was his country ' s first – and originally only – rocket engineer. he built a group of engineers on his return to china, and helped develop a variety


a hot paper for warm weather : research on fire and climate change honored when the weather warms up in the american west, most people are just enjoying the blooms and greenery. but fire - watchers know the lush landscape will turn into tinder when temperatures soar. and the more plant material there is, the more flammable the countryside will become. one researcher watching the fire seasons with particular attention is uc merced ’ s tony westerling, jointly appointed in the school of engineering and the school of social sciences, humanities and arts. westerling ’ s 2006 paper about large wildfires and climate change, published in the journal “ science, ” was cited by thomson scientific ’ s sciencewatch. com as the fast - breaking paper of the month in geosciences for february 2008. the paper was in the top 1 percent of papers in the geosciences in terms of being cited by other scientists in their publications. it also showed the largest percentage increase in citations in the past few months of any highly - cited paper in the geosciences. westerling ’ s paper gained national attention on its publication, with articles appearing in newspapers nationwide. the new assistant professor even found himself a guest on national public radio ’ s science friday before starting work at uc merced in july 2006. he and his colleagues at the university of arizona published a statement in 2007 following severe fires in southern california clarifying what kinds of fires their research had successfully linked to global climate change. the southern california chaparral fires were not among the group – their research focused on forest fires. this 2007 statement also gained widespread notice in the media. sciencewatch. com has published commentary by westerling about the 2006 paper and his own background and experience. the site also plans a podcast interview with him. in the commentary, westerling noted that the increase in forest fires “ has been very large, in terms of the number of large forest wildfires, total area burned in these fires, the length of the fire season, and the length of time individual fires burn. ” “ this research is the first to conclusively link the increase in wildfire to trends toward warming and earlier springs, implying that global warming will tend to increase wildfire in forest ecosystems where snow plays an important role in the hydrology, ” he said.