Final Self Evaluation

I have written 10 (or 11) blog posts since the last evaluation period.  I have written 2 every week.  I didn’t know that the purpose of the video was to have us speak in front of the camera so I asked Casey from the ORC to help me create that post.  I posted 26 comments on other posts.  My goal for this period was to write a little riskier posts to try to get conversations going.  It seemed that I was a little late on trying this because I think that people got sick of commenting by the end of the semester.  It was still a good learning experience to put my opinion out to the public.  The religion one is a very controversial topic and I get the feeling that most of the people in our class don’t believe in anything at all so it was scary to put my beliefs on the line.  I also had the writer of Dean’s Corner post on my blog!! I know that many others had many outside people posting on their blogs but I’m glad I got at least one outsider to find my post. 

This was a good experience.  I think we should’ve started reading the Don’t Be Such a Scientist earlier in the semester instead of some of the less useful readings that we did.  I don’t like the writer because he has a little bit of an annoying style of writing but overall I think we can learn a lot from the book. 

This class has probably been one of the most frustrating classes that I have taken so far but I hope that it’ll turn out to be a good “learning experience”.  Although I don’t think I will ever blog about science, I might do it for my personal use.  I’m glad I’ve learned what a blog is and how to set one up.  Goodbye blog

So long for now...

This blog was originally created to talk about the brain and happiness.  It kinda was hard to find exactly what I was looking for and envisioning so it ended up turning to a lot more health related topics because those are so abundant. I did like researching several of the topics that I wrote about because they were fun to read about.  I don’t think it was fun enough to do it without having to for a grade though.  So the bioterrorism was my last topic related post on this blog.

What I learned from this class:

1)    What a blog is

2)    What they are sometimes used for

3)    That people can make a living in the blog world (for news stations etc)

4)    That I definitely chose the right career path as an engineer (not in communication or even a scientist because I would hate to do this as a career)

5)    That communication is hard

Bioterrorism... how safe are we?

Bin Laden is dead.  Many worry about what is next.  Could there be an attack planned against the US?  If so, what is the target?  What will be the means?

24 is my all time favorite show.  Out of the 8 seasons, 2 of them focus on bio weapon attacks.  Maybe I’m brainwashed but I think this is something that is a very real threat. 

What is bioterrorism and what are bioweapons?  Bioterrorism is the deliberate release of a virus, bacteria or other agents that cause illness or death.  Many of these microorganisms can be found in nature and then are genetically manipulated so that they are more resistant to medicines, spread easier and faster, or worsen the symptoms.

The main advantage of bioweapons is that the terrorist will most likely not be able to be traced back to the attack.  People will be infected and not show symptoms for several hours or days, making it nearly impossible to determine where the bioagents were released.

There are several ways to release the bioweapons to the public.  Artilleries, missiles, and bombs can be launched that have the agents in them.  The problem with these devices is that almost all the agents are destroyed in the blast leaving only about 5-10% alive and capable of spreading disease.  Another way is by aerosols.  The agent is breathed in and the infection begins in the lungs.  The use of the water system is another way.  This is difficult because of all the precautions that are taken by the EPA and water agencies to prevent this.  The agent needs to be delivered into the water supply after the water treatment.  There also needs to be a large amount in order to be effective at all.  Food has also been used.  There was a salmonella attack in Oregon in 1984 that killed 751 people. 

Many of these deadly viruses can be treated with antibiotics and other medications; the problem is that usually they go undetected and cause mass spread before they are noticed.  Federal agencies have been working on plans for years and the local governments and agencies are slowly following suit.  It is important that every hospital and medical facility have a plan for a bioterrorism attack.  As DNA technology becomes better and is easily accessible, we should expect that more bioterrorism attacks will be eminent in our country and around the world.

See Federation of American Scientists for more info