Program for the Human Environment

Over the past year PHE researcher Mark Stoeckle supervised Trinity High School students Brenda Tan and Matt Cost in an investigation of NYC homes, sidewalks, and markets with DNA barcoding.Their work is summarized in a press release and is presented in more detail on the DNAHouse website, including a narrative report, Q+A, high-resolution images, and specimen and species ID results. Among other surprising results, the student investigators found 95 different animal species, 16% of human and pet food items mislabeled, and a genetically distinct mystery cockroach that might be a new subspecies or species.

The new international Deep Carbon Observatory http://dco.ciw.edu/ led by Robert Hazen and Russ Hemley has launched its website.  Jesse and Veselin Kostov have helped initiate the DCO and look forward to many discoveries. Enjoy Bob Hazen’s excellent radio interview on Science Friday.

Venerable (1898) publisher H W Wilson periodically compiles major American speeches.  Representative Speeches 2008-2009 edited by Brian Boucher balances the Inaugural Address and two other speeches by Barack Obama with a figure-free version of Jesse’s January 2009 talk about energy and environment, Natural Gas and the Jack Rabbit.

The loss of Air France Flight 447 on 1 June 2009 near the mid-Atlantic Ridge killed all 228 passengers and crew.  The flight recorders have not been located, and the cause remains unexplained.  An interim update on the investigation is scheduled for release on 17 December.  Meanwhile, on 29 November a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris encountered severe turbulence in the same location before descending into calmer weather and safely completing its trip.  The continuing mysteries prompt Cesare Marchetti and Jesse Ausubel to post some notes about a possible role for outgassing methane in the AF 447 crash which they accreted over the months after the tragic crash.

Mark Stoeckle and Jesse Ausubel attended the 3^rd International Barcode of Life Conference [http://www.dnabarcodes2009.org/] 7-13 November in Mexico City and were astonished and thrilled by the progress of the field since the March 2003 Banbury conference on DNA taxonomy that we catalyzed.  The conference press release summarizes vividly the progress, as does an article in the London Daily Telegraph.  Mark presented our new work with Larry Sirovich and Ken Zhang on application of indicator vectors to barcode data sets.

The quarterly magazine of Woods Hole’s Marine Biologicial Laboratory, Catalyst (Vol. 4, No. 2,Fall  2009), publishes an interview with Jesse, “The Big Picture” about the Encyclopedia of Life.