A Lab For Anyone Interested

CCL information booth at a local maker fair.

Can you imagine this? It's an equipped science lab, but not necessarily for industry use. It's for the average person, a place for citizen science. Not only is it a place for experimentation, but it is a place where a visitor can learn more about science. It's a maker space, a place for discovery and creativity, a place where you can meet others of similar mind, citizen scientists, science hackers, tinkerers, biotech innovators, science teachers. Here, at COUNTER CULTURE LABS (CCL), in San Francisco, the equipment is available to take the mystery out of the scientific process.

So, exactly what types of investigations are going on at CCL? Five different projects are happening at the same time, but they each have designated days of the week, so interested participants are sure to find the project that interests them. On Saturdays, a member of the lab offers a one and a half hour class for those interested, who also make a small monetary contribution to offset the cost of supplies. Content usually covers an Intro to the Lab and a 101 Level Synthetic Biology series.



Making Real Vegan Cheese occurs every other Monday and involves utilizing the same proteins that make milk to produce a milk without the animal involvement, then putting that milk through the same cheese-making fermentation process that makes milk-based cheese. Plant Biology takes place on the alternate Mondays involves learning all that plants can teach and investigating what products can be made from plants.

First Tuesday of the Month becomes a day when exploration of inventions and science at the intersection with art is explored, on what is called Art-n-Science. Anything fitting into this category is fair game. Wednesdays and Sundays are Open Insulin days. Anything that leads to a generic form of insulin or research into more improved forms of insulin is explored. The Fermentation Station is open on Wednesdays. Participants get to make herbal mead and other fermentation products, along with already-formulated brews.

Milo Toor, a software engineer, works with equipment that helps sequence DNA.

For those with extra time on their hands, fixing up the lab is an available option. Cleaning and tidying are always needed. Older, used equipment can be sold, and equipment used regularly can be tested and labelled with colored tape to indicate working status. Drawers can be labelled with types of items stored there and items left out and about can be returned to their drawers. Yes, it's the basics of science; it's participatory, and it's available to anyone interested.

Hardware Bio-Hacking session at CCL.

Thanks for information from this Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/pg/CounterCultureLabs/about/?ref=page_internal; this page on CCL: https://www.counterculturelabs.org/about.html; this page on CCL: https://www.counterculturelabs.org/projects.html; and the above link.

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A Mission Of Hope And Second Chances

Charlie Alexander, President and CEO.

It's not exactly an easy mission for any organization, but THE LIVING LEGACY FOUNDATION (LLF) manages to implement it with a strong dose of hope. For, its mission involves saving lives of those who are so sick that they need a new, donated organ, in order to live a better and more comfortable life, frequently even just to live.

However, the other portion of their mission, the procuring of the transplant-eligible organ can be difficult and heart-rending. It involves approaching family members at the most difficult time of their lives, a time when their loved one is dying suddenly. How they approach these families is key to completing their circle of life.



Of course, there can be a lot of preparatory work and the assistance of health care professionals brought about by the organization's advocacy efforts and educational outreach. Donations and volunteers help them in their work. And their work takes place throughout most of Maryland. The importance of their work is reflected in numbers, as in the numbers of individuals on the transplant waiting list. Maryland alone had 3,794 people on that list on May 18 of this year.

Let's look at an organ transplant recipient. For Marty Maren that need came up suddenly in 2009. He developed liver failure due to acetaminophen (Tylenol) poisoning, giving him only 72 hours to live without a transplant. Even though his prognosis was grim without a transplant, he was placed quickly on the liver transplant list.

It turned out that the first potential transplant, 48 hours in, came when Mr. Maren was not stable enough to receive it, since he had uncontrollable bleeding. That organ went to someone else further down the list. His wife, Michele, questioned the surgeon about any options to stabilize her husband, and was given the option of surgery to remove the liver, with the potential to stop the bleeding and buy him some time, only an additional 48 hours. She agreed to the procedure.

Almost toward the end of his prognostic life span, a liver became available and Mr. Maren had a successful transplant. Like many who are given this second chance at life, he gives back by volunteering at LLF and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Not only that, but he and his wife founded a Maryland chapter of TRIO (Transplant Recipients International Organization), a support group to help others receiving organ transplants.

Information booth at the Annual Celebration of Remembrance.

Consider your own situation and what you might want to do when you see that organ donation card. Do you sign the card, in the case that you have life-saving organs to give? Do you give someone else a chance at life, being able to make contributions to society, and live their lives more comfortably? What do you want to do?

Thanks for information from this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheLLF/about/?ref=page_internal; this article from LLF: https://www.thellf.org/stories-of-hope/stories/showstory/martymaren/; and the above link.

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Providing For Needs In A Rural Area

Inside Mapleton Food Share.

Some rural areas are dependent upon a single industry for prosperity, jobs, and income. But tough economic times can put that industry into decline and close the businesses that depended on that industry. That happened in Mapleton, Oregon when the logging industry went into decline and shuttered local logging operations. That meant lack of income for residents, who worked for the local operations, now out of jobs, and struggling to meet their families' basic needs.

At the same time, MAPLETON FOOD SHARE had been in business already, supported by Karen Harden and a team of volunteers, to provide food for families that were food insecure. Through donations and food collections, this organization is a source for nutritional support for those who lack the funds to purchase the food their families need.



Once the logging industry was declining, though, more families were in need, and the need wasn't just for food. Ms Harden decided to add a Resource Center to the services provided by Mapleton Food Share. The Resource Center actually recycles such items as clothing, furniture, and common household items, available to families in need for a small donation and volunteer hours.

As Ms. Harden stated, "Just as we have become a model for other rural food pantries, we hope that other pantries will expand to accommodate participants' basic needs." In addition to supplying non-food items, the Resource Center also utilizes the services of a pro bono social worker to provide counseling and also passes along information about other community services.

The organization held their latest fund-raiser in September, with the sponsorship help of Coast Insurance Services Inc., and it was held at Three Rivers Casino. The main attraction was Bingo, complete with prizes, including some cash prizes. Children were also allowed to play. There was plenty of food available for all participants.

Mapleton Food Share has its own gardens for fresh produce.

Back in April, Mapleton Food Share offered its facilities for an Earth Day volunteer sign-up event for the Mapleton Beautification Project. With a date in May set aside for the actual project, volunteers could declare their areas of interest or skills, so they could be assigned a particular task. The Project was a clean up and plant type of project, with such tasks as planting bushes, cleaning trash and other detritus from the roadway, and adding in grasses and flowers for natural coloring. Students from the local high school assisted with the sign-up.

Some of the items available in the Resource Center.

Thanks for information from this article on Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/karen-harden-mapleton-resource-center/; this page on Mapleton Food Share: http://www.mapletonfoodshare.org/index.php/resource-center; this Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/CoastInsuranceServices/photos/a.253511231397730.62162.239385062810347/1420081414740700/?type=3&theater; this Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/mapletonfoodshare.org/posts/743191185859370; and the above link.

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Advocacy For Farmworkers

A farmworker picking oranges.

One thing that I haven't discussed very much is my background, my father's background, his parent's background. My grandparents, who immigrated from Poland, farmed the land. Their children, all ten of them helped them to farm the land.

As I was growing up, my Uncle Joe had a farm a few miles away from my grandparents' home. Many is the summer that my dad would take us four children to Uncle Joe's farm to harvest some strawberries. Given that we only picked what we needed for our family, including what we used for freezing and canning, we didn't have quite the same experience as farmworkers, those who are hired by farmers to pick ripened fruits and vegetables. But I can tell you that it is back-breaking work in the hot sun, with no shade anywhere in sight.



At any rate, some of my experience, albeit not exactly the same as that of farmworkers, has always given me a great respect for what they do, and also for the organizations that advocate for them. You see, picking the produce for our nation's families is hard, backbreaking work, and the people who do it don't often receive much in the way of gratitude or pay.

In Florida, back in 1983, after early freezes had damaged the orange crop, an organization, the FLORIDA FARM WORKERS ASSOCIATION (FWAF), was formed. This organization essentially empowers farmworkers and provides a safety net for them and their families. It also seeks to leverage its power in numbers to address injustices in the various settings in which farmworkers find themselves.

Because farmworkers have close contact with crops, they also are exposed to chemicals that are applied to those crops, including pesticides. You would think that pesticides would have to be safe for human beings since these are food crops. That's the reason for regulations that ban pesticides and limit their use. Last year, the EPA for the first time, banned the use of chlorpyrifos.

Chlorpyrifos had been proven to be neurologically damaging to children and fetuses, as are other organophosphates. Farmworkers working in the fields get direct exposure to these substances and if enough is absorbed or ingested, they can suffer acute symptoms that indicate poisoning. They can also carry the residue on their clothing and back to their family members. That substance easily gets into the items they touch, unless they wash immediately and get the residue off their bodies.

Here the concern is that even when only adults are working in the fields, children are exposed just walking near the fields, touching the treated crops, playing in water contaminated with the substance. With all that potential contact, sometimes children can even be exposed at a level that gives them acute poisoning. But it is the neurological effects that are most concerning. Those effects include decreased IQ, neurodevelopmental delays, ADHD, disruption of reflexes, and impaired motor development. So, it's easy to understand why the ban was instituted.

The set-up for food distribution in Immolakee.

But. wait a minute. Under the current EPA, it was decided to ignore the scientific evidence and eliminate the ban, allowing chlorpyrifos to be used, endangering those who work closely with the growing produce. FWAF has been working and teaming with other advocacy organizations to get the ban re-instituted. So, if you see a petition or know of a protest calling for the ban, it's time to become an activist yourself, and participate. You'll be protecting the health of those who tend and pick the produce that gives you such an enriched source of nutrition.

Part of the campaign to re-institute the chlorpyrifos ban.

Thanks for information from this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/FarmworkerAssocFL/about/?ref=page_internal; this article from Project TENDR: http://projecttendr.com/chemicals-and-pollutants/organophosphate-op-pesticides/; and the above links.

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