Meteor Showers and our Common Humanity

Have you ever seen a meteor shower?  I am sure you have heard of this amazing sight in the sky.
A meteor shower can be seen in the skies this August! 
Every time I hear about the vast space beyond us, I wonder why we happen to be on our small blue planet.  Why is this the one and only planet with the diverse amazing life forms in the whole wide universe that we can see beyond?




This is a photo of meteor showers taken from a telescope in the Negev, the southern part of Israel.




This photo is from the NASA website:

"In this 30 second exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower Friday, Aug. 12, 2016 in Spruce Knob, West Virginia.

The Perseids show up every year in August when Earth ventures through trails of debris left behind by an ancient comet. This year, Earth may be in for a closer encounter than usual with the comet trails that result in meteor shower, setting the stage for a spectacular display."

Does anyone comprehend the terms "debris left behind by an ancient comet"?  Star dust?  I feel that these are real things that are much bigger than everything happening on our small planet.  

At the same time I read that many people on earth, those who live in large cities, as many as one third, never get to see the stars. Never get to see the night sky, or the milky way.

Just for comparison, I happened to attend an evening organised by the Daniel Pearl Foundation as Rob Eshman, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief TRIBE Media/Jewish Journal, lead an interactive dialogue with two Daniel Pearl Fellows: Amal Khan (2016 fellow), and Aoun Sahi (2010 fellow) journalists from Pakistan.

These two young Journalists presented an image of Pakistan that was different from what we hear in our media, or that I ever heard about.  They were surprised to find out the Americans are just as humans as their Pakistani families.  They stressed that in the eyes of the average Pakistani Americans are some kind of evil mutant of humanity.  They are fed mis-truths about Israel and "Jews" are so misunderstood, they are not even considered human.

The Pakistani's image of the west is mostly from popular TV programs: consumerism, lack of family values, etc.  

My question to Amal was: Is there any way that they can attempt to show science and nature programs on Pakistani TV?  Pakistani kids can certainly watch the night sky and witness the milky way.  As we all know kids have innate curiosity, and I am certain that watching a meteor shower will stimulate enough kids to comprehend that universe beyond.  Future generations should be taught basics of life and biology.  We cannot leave education up to politicians.

Aoun mentioned that they do not have enough teachers and educators to raise an informed future generation.  I'd like to suggest using the parts of the internet and TV media that is geared toward basic education: 

Websites like Kahnacademy.com

TV shows like Cosmos.

We have to begin somewhere in teaching common humanity rather than historic and political differences.

Basic Science #8: Heavy Water. Hydrogen and Deuterium are Isotopes

Have you heard of HEAVY WATER?

Regular water  H2O, is made of two hydrogen atoms, one oxygen.

Hydrogen (H) has one proton and one electron, its atomic (proton) number is 1 with a mass of 1 Dalton.

Hydrogen has an isotope, meaning another element with the same number of protons, i.e. the atomic number, but a different mass of 2 Daltons because it has an extra neutron.  Thus, deuterium (D) is a stable isotope of hydrogen, it has 1 proton, 1 electron and 1 neutron.

Deuterium is a heavy isotope of hydrogen. Some of the water on earth has one or two deuterium atoms replacing the hydrogen.  D2O is heavy water as the deuterium is two times heavier than hydrogen.

Water is essential for life.  In our planet you can find water in all 3 phases: As ice in the glaciers, as water in the oceans and as vapor in the clouds.  Vapor of water contains deuterium and that makes water to have a higher viscosity and boiling point. Natural vapor or moist is always deuterium depleted compared to its water source and it always covers water and even ice.

Water-Cycle: A lesson from elementary school.  Remember?

As water tends to evaporate, it is the regular water that evaporates into clouds.  The water sitting in the depths will be enriched with deuterium, the heavy isotope of hydrogen, or heavy water.

I don’t recommend drinking heavy water.  D20 tastes almost exactly like H20. However, seeds will not sprout in heavy water, and when rats are given heavy water exclusively, they die of thirst although glutted with water. The D atom causes all processes in the body to slow down or come to a halt.

I’d like to introduce a dear esteemed colleague of mine, Laszlo G. Boros MD.

Dr. Boros has recently come upon the idea that we have been exposed too long to variable high levels of heavy water in our food and in our environment.  He has been studying the levels of D in different food sources and in many cancer patients.  He has published a number of scientific papers to test the assumption that deuterium depletion can be therapeutic in treating tumors.  
On top of all that he is convinced that some old civilizations knew about all this.  Most likely Dr. Boros believes this knowledge is conveyed in the Torah, in the five books of Moses.

Check out this presentation where Dr. Boros reads the Torah word by word and links it to biology and physics: 

https://youtu.be/a7PdYx0hHU4

Would appreciate any comments or questions.  It is a revolutionary idea.

My Life after the Car Crash

I was driving out of an underground parking on a very narrow ramp in my 2014 Toyota Corolla.  I hit the wall on the right.  I shifted the car to reverse gear, lost the brakes and hit the wall behind me.  I inhaled, took a long exhale shifted the transmission to drive and WOW!!! My car took off like a bullet, zoomed up the ramp straight into a parked car pushing it into the window of the PIZZA HUT.

The exit ramp: You can see the black skid marks on the wall 

cause by many cars hitting this wall.

I have to say there were no injuries!  This happened on May 6 2016, about two months ago.  All this time I have been in contact with my auto insurance company, Toyota automotive company and California DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles).  I hardly had time or the mental state to do anything else with my life. There is some kind of resolution, but in no way is it final in my mind.

Ms. McCall and her car

The two cars had to be towed away.  The policeman at scene collected the information from all the parties, name, Driver License, registration, insurance.  He said there will be no police report as there are no injuries.

Initially I was certain there was some electrical malfunction in the car, and I am still convinced of that.  However my insurance company AAA never gave it a thought.  I kept telling my agent and her manager and their supervisor that there was something wrong with the car.  Finally the manager told me: “We are the insurance company, we pay for the damages of the accidents.  You are the owner of the car, you have to contact the manufacturer.”  So I did that, I called the Toyota of North America and filed a claim with them.  Toyota hired a third party US-BOSCH and they sent an expert to retrieve the crash data from the car.  He had to go to the storage yard downtown LA at a time when there was no auction.  He retrieved the files on May 31, and I have these files as well for my records.  Toyota had 30 days to complete their investigation. 

In the meantime my insurance company paid me for my totaled car and rushed me to return my rental car before the 30 day period in my policy.  I bought a new Mazda3.  AAA also paid for repair of the Pizza Hut window.  The parked car that was hit was also totaled.  The owner Ms. McCall was waiting for her pizza with her 10 yr old daughter.  The window crashed right next to them and caused them a scare.  The next day she hired a lawyer to sue for “emotional damage.”  She was paid for her totaled car and her Uber rides.  

As I was waiting for Toyota’s decision I tried to get an interpretation of the crash data.  There were 4 tables from different triggers showing essentially that in the last 5 seconds before the crash the speed went from 0 to 15 MPH while the accelerator was at 100%.  Some of my friends not in the car industry looked at this and concluded that the accelerator was stuck.  No manual effort can get the accelerator to 100%.  But many believed that I pushed the accelerator, mistaking it for the brake.  Most of all that manager in my insurance stated clearly: “The file shows your foot was on the accelerator.”

Four weeks later I received a brief letter from Toyota telling me that they found no manufacturing or design defect in the car.  They are sorry about my accident.

Not much left for me to do at this point except finish my re-examination by the DMV.  As there was a structure involved the driver has to give a recorded testimony in front of the safety examiner.  I also had to bring a form filled by my doctor that I am physically and mentally healthy to drive.  I had to practice all the questions in the written DMV test and I passed that test.  I am now studying online videos and taking driver safety courses so I can pass the driving test. 

Vedem – In the Lead

I attended a very touching ceremony for the commemoration of the holocaust at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.  There were a number of holocaust survivors including my dear friend Gitta Rosenzweig, a hidden child of the holocaust.

There were also many dignitaries, councils from a number of European countries, rabbis, and a children choir.  They spoke about the Butterfly Project: A living memorial to honor the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust.  People getting together to paint as many ceramic butterflies as the number of kids killed in the Holocaust.

Vedem-the magazine from the concentration camp Terezin:

The most exciting part of the ceremony was the opening of the exhibition named Vedem.  Vedem (In the Lead) is Czech-language literary magazine that existed from 1942 to 1944 in the Terezin concentration camp, during the Holocaust. It was hand-produced by a group of boys living in the Home One barracks, led by Editor-in-chief Petr Ginz. Altogether, some 700 pages of Vedem survived World War II.  Some of these pages are displayed in this very touching exhibition.

Vedem-The creativity of children in danger:

A drawing by Petr Ginz of the planet Earth as seen from the Moon was taken by Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon onto Space Shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated upon its reentry into the earth’s atmosphere.

Moon Landscape: Memory of the Holocaust into space:

 At 16, Ginz was deported to Auschwitz, where he was gassed.

This exhibition is demonstrating the power of imagination and creativity of human beings under the most distressing conditions.  What a waste of the human potential...

Things I learned from my father: Constancy

I am often asked why am I always speaking of my mother.  What about my father?  The simple answer is that my mother was the dominant parent.  She was the one who was always heard and controlled our social connections.  My father was the more quiet personality who accepted most of my mother’s decisions.  He adored my mother and always praised all her qualities.

My father has certainly affected my personality, as he was very accepting and non-combative.  The most important thing for him was the constancy in life.  Observing the traditions, keeping the Sabbath, keeping the holidays and days of remembrance.  Attending important family events such as weddings and Bar-Mitzvahs.

We always had a festive meal to welcome the Sabbath on Friday night.  My father presided over the table with a very constant manner of reading the prayers, blessing his wife and children, blessing over the wine and the bread.  He never missed a Shabbat morning service and was always up before anyone to attend the early prayer ritual.  By the time he was back we were up and ready for a small meal and again he presided with a Kiddush prayer over wine and bread.

In the Jewish calendar there is a fast almost every month: The Yom Kippur fast is most known.  But my father observed all the others: He fasted in memory of his mother and father’s deaths.  He fasted in memory of the destruction of the Jewish Temple: Tisha B’Av, the fast of Ester before Purim, the fast of the eldest child on the eve of Passover.

Most Jewish families who came to Israel from Iran had this social structure that the man is out to make a living and the woman is the one who stays home, cooks and cleans and brings up the children.  My grandfather was a traveling salesman back in Iran.  He traveled from Turkey to Iraq to Iran selling wool.  He was hardly ever home.  In Israel most men in the family were in some kind of trade.  My father was a salesman as well.  He was home every night, so he participated in the household chores by doing the weekly shopping.  Some of the women had part time jobs outside the house.  Many worked from home sawing clothes for others.

I was an exceptional child as I excelled in school.  Both my parents did not exactly know how to deal with a bright little girl.  I was a voracious reader early on.  This is what my father had to say when he saw me reading a thick book: “How do you remember the beginning of the book by the time you get to the end?”  Occasionally he would attend parents meetings in school.  He was always bragging to everyone about the compliments he hears from my teachers.

In my teenage years we always had this push and pull between the traditions of my family compared with my friends from more progressive families.  I could never follow my classmate who had her boyfriend spend the night at home with her.  However, my father was always more sensitive to my emotional needs than my mother.  He would defend me against my mother when we had a social argument.

My father had a stroke right after I left home.  Communication with him was difficult after that.  After he died I remember my mother’s comment: “I miss your father’s constancy.  He made me get up every morning and prepare three meals every day and stay on top of life.”  She also reminded us every year on the day of his memorial.  So I remember that he died in the winter

My father always shows up in my dreams.  Some sweet dreams, some dreams when I am stressed and look for guidance.  A sort of a guardian angel. 

Basic Science #7: Albumin

Albumin is a large abundant protein in our blood.  When blood is collected in a tube and left to stand, the red cells, containing hemoglobin will sink to the bottom.  The liquid on top is called serum or plasma.   Albumin gives it the yellowish color.  Serum also contains various components important for our overall health.  The white blood cells and platelets will be in between these two layers - in the interphase.

We should all know about a blood test for Albumin (by my health care provider):

Normal amounts of Albumin: 3.3 - 4.8 g/dL. Albumin is a protein that is made in the liver and released into the blood. It helps keep the blood from leaking out of blood vessels. Albumin also helps carry some medicines and other substances through the blood and is important for tissue growth and healing.

Chemistry of albumin: Human serum albumin - HSA is made of 609 amino acids.  (Yes six hundred and nine amino acids!)  Bovine serum albumin - BSA has a very similar chemistry with small differences in amino acid sequence.   Here is the 3D structure of both proteins pointing out this specific difference:

Human and Bovine Serum Albumin:

The similar structure of albumin in various organisms can be followed from lower organisms to higher ones.  This is the scientific base of evolution.  In comparative genetics the scientists can compare the amino acid sequence of mouse, rat, dog, bovine and human and show the homology.  There is a higher fit or homology between human and bovine, than between human and mouse.

Albumins belong to a group of proteins described as globular proteins, referring to their spherical shape.  This shape makes them soluble in water, so their location in the cell is in the aqueous, or water environment.  Some proteins are membrane proteins which means they are not soluble in water and will be attached to the cell wall or membrane. 

An important aspect of biochemistry of proteins is transport of nutrients or drugs depending on their solubility in water.  Albumin has an important role as a “universal” solvent.  Here you can see how Albumin can attach various molecules as fatty acids which are lipids, or calcium which is a small ion, and transfer them through the blood to their destination in the body.

Albumin attached to various drugs and nutrients:

In this post on Albumin I have introduced the principles of soluble and membrane proteins and some basis of evolution. I hope more people would study these topics and learn to appreciate our amazing complex biology.

Happy Purim!

Fira, my uncle's wife arrived in Israel from Mashad many years after our family.  She was always known for her outstanding cooking skills.  Even after we were all grown ups , my mother kept telling to go to Fira so I can learn to cook!
These days Fira is running cooking workshops and parties in addition to her catering business.  
Here are some of Fira's sweet memories of "Mishloach Manot" the custom straight out of the Megillah to take packages of goodies to relatives, friends and the poor: 
"I remember this tradition with sweetness and richness!
In the morning of the holiday all of us the Jewish kids, would wake up with happiness in our hearts.  We would put on our finest clothes, and go on our mission of delivering the goods our moms made.  Each family had a tray including all the goodies and the kids would go to the Jewish families and deliver them.  The woman who dared to forget any of the items was scrutinized!  "Mishloach Manot" was the topic of the conversation the whole day!  How was her Halva?  What was the smell of her non tafton?  And the kids were walking around with the decorated trays and thoroughly enjoying every moment of the celebration.
The traditional Mashadi "Mishloach Manot" includes all these sweets: "Shir berenge" (rice with milk) Halva (Rice, sugar, cinnamon, curcumin, saffron) Gushfil (Persian style elephant's ears, unlike the Ozney Haman- Haman's ears or Hamentashen.) Nan tafton (sweet rolls) and Hard boiled eggs decorated with stars of David."

I have sweet memories from the Shapira neighborhood of Tel Aviv.  At the time no family had a cooking oven.  Across the street from my Aunt Soraya's apartment was a bakery.  Our mothers would prepare all the dough at home and then walk to the bakery with all the kids.  The baker provided the large baking trays, the mothers would lay their goods place them in the oven and in a few hours the smells were all over the neighborhood.  We the kids had the best times of our lives.  We happily walked home with our mothers and then helped divide everything into portions and deliver them.  My mom had the best non tafton!
Happy Purim!