Passionate Volcano Chasers: Photographing Eruptions Around the World

*** Check out the risks these amateurs take as they take vacations just to photograph erupting volcanoes all over the world.

From Denny: Do you ever wonder how those awe-inspiring photos get to us from the media? There are those crazy and downright obsessed volcano photographers out there in the science world. When word gets out that a volcano is erupting in the world, these guys jump on the first plane out to run to the volcano. Most people have more sense and run away from said erupting dangerous volcano. 🙂

Check out the personal story of one German photographer, Martin Rietze. To give you an idea of the ground conditions of what it’s like for a photographer, Rietze’s experience tells it all. He didn’t sleep for three nights straight. (Smart move in my book.) Turns out the volcano was throwing out huge chunks of rock the size of cars like some screaming diva in a world class hissy fit. That would prompt anyone to stay awake and on alert.

He hugged a nearby boulder as a shield against the lava-spewing volcano. Yeah, that’s right. Why? Because that protective boulder was only 1,600 feet from the mouth of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Crazy or brave, you decide.

Rietze is an engineer by day who builds delicate electronics for planetariums. He is also a volcanophile, one of a small group worldwide who like to spend their vacations traveling to erupting volcanoes. Molten magma, choking ash clouds, poisonous gases, smoking-hot boulders raining down upon them are all part of the thrill for this mostly male band of thrill seekers. The estimate is they number at about 200 and hail from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA, France and Switzerland. The majority of them are professional engineers: computer, electrical, chemical and mechanical.

This crazy pursuit is one of those adventures they know they can’t make a living doing so it is a labor of love. Once this adventure was a solitary pursuit but with the advent of the web this small band of volcanophiles are able to share their adventures and tips.

Just when you think this pursuit is such a great idea, the professionals urge caution like from those who shoot for National Geographic: “”They put fire in people’s eyes and their brain is left behind,” say Donna and Steve O’Meara, a husband-and-wife team. They caution that because volcanoes are so incredibly alluring that inexperienced people tend to take far too many chances that are risky and not wise.

They remind us experienced volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft from France and Harry Glicken from the USA, perished in an eruption on Mount Unzen in Japan on June 3, 1991. With them were 41 journalists who also risked their lives and died with the scientists.

Some in the academic community disdain the amateurs because of their risk taking. There are other academics who welcome them as a good resource. Richard Wunderman, editor of the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. says he counts on amateurs for reports and photos of eruptions that would otherwise go unrecorded. “They’re an amazing resource.”

One reason it is so dangerous to photograph a volcano is because of the amount of time required to get a clear shot. Clouds, fog and steam often obscure the view and what makes for a stunning photo. The more time you spend in the dangerous chaotic environment the greater the risk.

For safety gear in this vicious environment, Patrick Koster, a chemical engineer of Spijkenisse, the Netherlands, dons a climbing helmet, gloves, goggles and a gas mask to filter ash as well as neutralize chemicals in the gases emitted by the volcanoes. Koster says this gear is “very important because fresh lava can be razor-sharp. If you put your hand down on something, you can get cut badly.”

Cinematographer Sean Stiegemeier, of Los Angeles, remarked about how much easier it was to photograph the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull since it was so accessible compared to most volcanoes that erupt in remote places in the world. “The one good day of weather we were there, there were probably 10 cars out next to the volcano, most of them photographers with gigantic lenses,” he reported. “It was so loud, every now and again it felt like it was rumbling its stomach at us and then it would spit out lava.”

Yeah, these crazy amateurs are definitely dedicated. 🙂 Good hunting, guys. I’ll definitely keep you in my prayers.

*** Photo by Helen Maria Bjornsd/Nordic Photos/Getty Images

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Ground-Breaking King of the Lab: Venter Creates Synthetic DNA

Synthetic DNA

From Denny: Frankenstein move over ’cause a new kind of scientist is in town: a Vietnam era ex-Navy guy gone micro-organism tech. Scientists are crowing they have succeeded in creating a living cell from DNA synthesized in a lab. It isn’t yet a synthetic organism but give them time.

It is just me or is it just a bit creepy to create life in a lab? Can we all imagine a generation from now of the typical high school kid creating synthetic life in their lab? Of course, people of my mind are wondering where this may go since science has never owned a great track record on exercising wisdom in their achievements.

J. Craig Venter, creator of synthetic genome

Who is the scientist behind this scientific curiosity? Craig Venter is his name, a name that draws a lot of unfriendly fire in the science community. He sure has his detractors but even they admit he does think big.

What Did Venter Do?

Venter and his team have worked on this synthetic life idea since 1995. They utilized four chemical DNA constituents – called A, T, C and G – to form a synthetic genome. They inserted that synthetic genome into a cell, giving the cell orders as it grew and multiplied.

When you have worked on a project for that many years it’s obvious there were a number of high hurdles to overcome. Venter said his first question was to figure out how to make a very big piece of DNA. You see – for those of us not in the DNA biz he explained – most chemical synthesis techniques will stop working once you arrive at a few thousand DNA letters. Great, so how to solve that problem? He discovered he could not copy a whole genome so he decided to do it in parts – sort of like the old adage of “the ant eating the elephant” solution. Venter said, “We wanted to make something close to a million.”

How Venter Did It

Solving that chemistry issue took him most of the last 15 years of his life. How did they solve that problem? He and his team placed smaller fragments of synthesized DNA into bacterial cells where they huddled together into a tight group like a football team, becoming larger fragments. The second stage of the solution was to then insert the now enlarged fragments into yeast cells so the yeast cells could slap them all on the back making everyone fast friends. Read that as the yeast cells were successful at stitching those larger fragments all together like a quilt. Hmmm… brings up Frankenstein images, doesn’t it? 🙂

And if that wasn’t enough to solve, they still had to figure out how to transfer that huge chunk of DNA into a cell without fumbling said football and losing the game. They didn’t want all their hard work to end up breaking as they transferred it. Venter also wanted to prove that he could transfer a working chromosome from one football team to another – like one species of bacteria to another.

Venter was crowned Creator God of Bacteria when he took the genome from a simple small cell bacteria, known by the impressive handle of Mycoplasma mycoides, and transferred it to another bacteria species (Mycoplasma capricolum). He will now be worshiped by very low life forms for at least a millennium – maybe longer.

You would think the new title of Creator God of Bacteria would have satisfied his scientist ego but no, Venter pressed on. He whipped out his science version of a copier and made an exact copy of the mycoides genome (think Football Team Red if your eyes are starting to glaze over at all the technicalities) in his lab and then transferred his synthetic genome into capricolum (think Football Team Blue).

Was it truly this easy? Wishing was not happening. To get the system to work correctly Venter and his team had to determine a more accurate DNA sequence for the mycoides genome (Football Team Red) and that detour journey took a number of years to figure out. This week, in the scientists’ Holy Grail of journals, Science, Venter and his team got to scream their success from the rooftops.

Weighing in on the accomplishment is synthetic biologist from Boston University, Jim Collins, who claims this really isn’t a new life form. He is saying basically what I’ve been thinking about this story is that “Its genome is a stitched together copy of the DNA of an organism that exists in nature.”

While Collins concedes Venter has created something remarkable it still isn’t the Holy Grail of creating life. “We don’t know enough biology to create or synthesize life,” says Collins. “I think we’re far removed from understanding how would you build a truly artificial genome from scratch.”

While it’s cool that Venter has figured out how to control a cell’s behavior by using DNA created in the lab it sure leaves us wondering about this new situation in our world. Bioethicists have yet another tough task ahead as they wrestle with the morality.

Synthetic genome chart

Ethical Science Dilemmas

Another scientist to give his opinion is Gregory Kaebnick, a scholar at the Hasting Center, a bioethics think tank. Kaebnick is concerned about this new field of synthetic biology. What happens if any synthetic organisms make their escape from the lab and run wild, creating chaos? Does this cross the line where humans start playing God before they are fully grounded in wisdom? The bacteria crowd might be taking back Venter’s crown as King of the Lab.

What happens if organisms no longer evolve on their own as they always have? Kaebnick thinks this could be a troubling developmental change in our world. Pretty much sounds like an “all bets are off” scenario as the rules of the world as we know it could change drastically or subtly. No one knows.

Of course, Venter, ever the controversial Devil’s Advocate, believes his work is the very reason we should be exploring this area of creating life. “We decided that writing new biological software and creating new species, we could create new species to what we want them to do, not what they evolved to do,” says Venter.

Venter’s new company is called Synthetic Genomics. What he wants to do with these newly created species is make fuels and new vaccines. Currently, Venter and his colleagues have a monopoly on the techniques for genomic manipulation. They are also handsomely funded. There are other competitors working in related fields. The world of synthetic micro-organisms is inching closer and closer into colliding with the world of what we know and changing into the world of possibilities to cheer and fear.

*** For a bio on Craig Venter and more about his institute: J. Craig Venter Institute

*** For his 2007 book, A life decoded: my genome, my life By J. Craig Venter, check out the Google reader preview of 62 pages.

*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

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Astronomy: Butterfly Nebula

From Denny: This week, Sept. 9, NASA’s been releasing new Hubble Telescope photos taken since those billion dollar repairs of the Telescope in May. The new photos are sharper of awesomely beautiful nebulas and galaxies in our universe, some with halo effects of light.

The Butterfly Nebula is known by other names such as the Bug Nebula and proper – and boring – catalogue name of NGC 6302. The Butterfly Nebula is in our own Milky Way Galaxy! It’s approximately about 3,800 light years away in the constellation of Scorpius.

How did this nebula get that cool looking glowing effect on its outer edges? Photoshop, cosmic level? No, it’s caused by a glowing gas that’s being expelled out over 2,200 years! Quite the spectacular view from our perspective.

The butterfly shape stretches out over two light years. How do you envision the distance of two light years? It’s about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.

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Obama is now the 44th President!

Just finished watching Obama’s speech and other news coverage – what an historic time, what emotion for millions around the world. There must be millions of people crowded together on the Washington Mall. It reminds me of when the Pope in Rome, Italy celebrates Mass in St. Peter’s Square and a million strong gather.

Interesting is that the ceremony ran a little long and by so doing Obama became the 44th President exactly at noon BEFORE he took the oath of office four minutes later. How many of you knew that bit of trivia?

Congrats Mr. President! May you be successful in all endeavors.

Denny

A new day is here!
Photo by stephentrepreneur @ flickr

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