Natural healing: How does Nature repair itself after an oil spill?

Few environmental disasters are as indicting of humanity as major oil spills. Yet Nature has sometimes shown a remarkable ability to clean up the oil on its own.In late April 2010, the BP-owned semi-submersible oilrig known as Deepwater Horizon exploded just off the coast of Louisiana. Over the following 84 days, the well from which it had been pumping spewed 4.4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the latest independent report (Crone & Tolstoy, 2010). In August, the US Government released an even grimmer estimate: according to the federal Flow Rate Technical Group, up to 4.9 million barrels were excreted during the course of the disaster. Whatever the actual figure, images from NASA show that around 184.8 million gallons of oil have darkened the waters just 80 km from the Louisiana coast, where the Mississippi Delta harbours marshlands and an abundance of biodiversity (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2010; Fig 1).…the Deepwater incident is not the first time that a massive oil spill has devastated marine and terrestrial ecosystems, nor is it likely to be the lastOpen in a separate windowFigure 1Images of the Deepwater Horizon oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. These images were recorded by NASA''s Terra spacecraft in May 2010. The image dimensions are 346 × 258 kilometres and North is toward the top. In the upper panel, the oil appears bright turquoise owing to the combination of images that were used from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) aboard the craft. The Mississippi Delta, which harbors marshlands and an abundance of biodiversity, is visible in the top left of the image. The white arrow points to a plume of smoke and the red cross-hairs indicate the former location of the drilling rig. The lower two panels are enlargements of the smoke plume, which is probably the result of controlled burning of collected oil on the surface.© NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR TeamThe resulting environmental and economic situation in the Gulf is undoubtedly dreadful—the shrimp-fishing industry has been badly hit, for example. Yet the Deepwater incident is not the first time that a massive oil spill has devastated marine and terrestrial ecosystems, nor is it likely to be the last. In fact, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) deals with approximately 300 oil spills per year and the Deepwater catastrophe—despite its extent and the enormous amount of oil released—might not be as terrible for the environment as was originally feared. Jacqueline Michel, a geochemist who has worked on almost every major oil spill since the 1970s and who is a member of NOAA''s scientific support team for the Gulf spill, commented that “the marshes and grass are showing some of the highest progresses of [oil] degradation because of the wetness.” This rapid degradation is partly due to an increased number of oil-consuming microbes in the water, whose population growth in response to the spill is cleaning things up at a relatively fast pace (Hazen et al, 2010).It therefore seems that, however bad the damage, Nature''s capacity to repair itself might prevent the unmitigated disaster that many feared on first sight of the Deepwater spill. As the late social satirist George Carlin (1937–2008) once put it: “The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas, a surface nuisance[.] The planet will be here for a long, long—LONG—time after we''re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, because that''s what it does, it''s a self-correcting system.”Michel believes that there are times when it is best to leave nature alone. In such cases the oil will degrade naturally by processes as simple as exposure to sunlight—which can break it down—or exposure to the air—which evaporates many of its components. “There have been spills where there was no response because we knew we were going to cause more harm,” Michel said. “Although we''re going to remove heavier layers of surface oil [in this case], the decision has been made to leave oil on the beach because we believe it will degrade in a timescale of months […] through natural processing.”To predict the rate of general environmental recovery, Michel said one should examine the area''s fauna, the progress of which can be very variable. Species have different recovery rates and although it takes only weeks or months for tiny organisms such as plankton to bounce back to their normal population density, it can take years for larger species such as the endangered sea turtle to recover.…however bad the damage, Nature''s capacity to repair itself might prevent the unmitigated disaster that many feared on first sight…Kimberly Gray, professor of environmental chemistry and toxicology at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA), is most concerned about the oil damaging the bottom of the food chain. “Small hits at the bottom are amplified as you move up,” she explained. “The most chronic effects will be at the base of the food chain […] we may see lingering effects with the shrimp population, which in time may crash. With Deepwater, it''s sort of like the straw that broke the shrimp''s back.”Wetlands in particular are a crucial component of the natural recovery of ecosystems, as they provide flora that are crucial to the diets of many organisms. They also provide nesting grounds and protective areas where fish and other animals find refuge from predation. “Wetlands and marsh systems are Nature''s kidneys and they''ve been damaged,” Gray said. The problem is exacerbated because the Louisiana wetlands are already stressed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf coast in August 2005, and because of constant human activity and environmental damage. As Gray commented, “Nature has a very powerful capacity to repair itself, but what''s happening in the modern day is assault after assault.”Ron Thom, a marine ecologist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory—a US government-funded research facility (Richland, WA, USA)—has done important research on coastal ecosystems. He believes that such habitats are able to decontaminate themselves to a limited degree because of evolution. “[Coastal-related ecosystems are] pretty resilient because they''ve been around a long time and know how to survive,” he said.As a result, wetlands can decontaminate themselves of pollutants such as oil, nitrate and phosphate. However, encountering large amounts of pollutants in a short period of time can overwhelm the healing process, or even stop it altogether. “We did some experiments here in the early 90s looking at the ability for salt marshes to break down oil,” Thom said. “When we put too much oil on the surface of the marsh it killed everything.” He explained that the oil also destroyed the sediment–soil column, where plant roots are located. Eventually, the roots disintegrated and the entire soil core fell apart. According to Thom, the Louisiana marshes were weakened by sediment and nutrient starvation, which suggests that the Deepwater spill destroyed below-ground material in some locations. “You can alter a place through a disturbance so drastic that it never recovers to what it used to be because things have changed so much,” he said.“Nature has a very powerful capacity to repair itself, but what''s happening in the modern day is assault after assault”Michael Blum, a coastal marsh ecologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, said that it is hard to determine the long-term effects of the oil because little is known about the relevant ecotoxicology—the effect of toxic agents on ecosystems. He has conducted extensive research on how coastal marsh plants respond to stress: some marshes might be highly susceptible to oil whereas others could have evolved to deal with natural oil seepage to metabolize hydrocarbons. In the former, marshes might perish after drastic exposure to oil leading to major shifts in plant communities. In the latter case, the process of coping with oil could involve the uptake of pollutants in the oil—known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)—and their reintroduction into the environment. “If plants are growing in the polluted sediments and tapping into those contaminated sources, they can pull that material out of the soil and put it back into the water column or back into the leaf tissue that is a food source for other organisms,” Blum explained.In addition to understanding the responses of various flora, scientists also need to know how the presence of oil in an ecosystem affects the fauna. One model that is used to predict the effects of oil on vertebrates is the killifish; a group of minnows that thrive in the waters of Virginia''s Elizabeth River, where they are continuously exposed to PAHs deposited in the water by a creosote factory (Meyer & Di Giulio, 2003). “The killifish have evolved tolerance to the exposure of PAHs over chronic, long-term conditions,” Blum said. “This suggests that something similar may occur elsewhere, including in Gulf Coast marshes exposed to oil.”Although Michel is optimistic about the potential for environmental recovery, she pointed out that no two spills are the same. “There are lot of things we don''t know, we never had a spill that had surface release for so long at this water depth,” she said. Nevertheless, to better predict the long-term effects, scientists have turned to data from similar incidents.In 1989, the petroleum tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef off the coast of Prince William Sound in Alaska and poured a minimum of 11 million gallons of oil into the water—enough to fill 125 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Senior scientist at NOAA, Stanley Rice of Juno, Alaska, studies the long-term effects of the spill and the resulting oil-related issues in Prince William Sound. Rice has worked with the spill since day 3 and, 20 years later, he is seeing major progress. “I never want to give the impression that we had this devastating oil spill in 1989 and it''s still devastating,” he said. “We have pockets of a few species where lingering oil hurts their survival, but in terms of looking at the Sound in its entirety […] it''s done a lot of recovery in 20 years.”…little is known about the relevant ecotoxicology—the effect of toxic agents on ecosystemsDespite the progress, Rice is still concerned about one group of otters. The cold temperature of the water in the Sound—rarely above 5 °C—slows the disintegration of the oil and, every so often, the otters come in contact with a lingering pocket. When they are searching for food, for example, the otters often dig into pits containing oil and become contaminated, which damages their ability to maintain body temperature. As a result, they cannot catch as much food and starve because they need to consume the equivalent of 25% of their body weight every day (Rice, 2009).“Common colds or worse, pneumonia, are extremely debilitating to an animal that has to work literally 365 days a year, almost 8 to 12 hours a day,” Rice explained. “If they don''t eat enough to sustain themselves, they die of hyperthermia.” Nevertheless, in just the last two years, Rice has finally seen the otter population rebound.Unlike the otters, one pod of orca whales has not been so lucky. Since it no longer has any reproductive females, the pod will eventually become extinct. However, as it dies out, orca prey such as seals and otters will have a better chance of reproducing. “There are always some winners and losers in these types of events,” Rice said. “Nature is never static.”The only ‘loser'' that Rice is concerned about at the moment is the herring, as many of their populations have remained damaged for the past 20 years. “Herring are critical to the ecosystem,” he said. “[They are] a base diet for many species […] Prince William Sound isn''t fully recovered until the herring recover.”North America is not alone in dealing with oil-spill disasters—Europe has had plenty of experience too. One of the worst spills occurred when the oil tanker Prestige leaked around 20 million gallons of oil into the waters of the Galacian coast in Northern Spain in 2002. This also affected the coastline of France and is considered Spain''s worst ecological disaster.“The impacts of the Prestige were indeed severe in comparison with other spills around the world,” said attorney Xabier Ezeizabarrena, who represented the Fishermen Guilds of Gipuzkoa in a lawsuit relating to the spill. “Some incidents aren''t even reported, but in the European Union the ratio is at least one oil spill every six months.”For disasters involving oil, oceanographic data to monitor and predict the movement of the spill is essentialIn Ezeizabarrena''s estimation, Spanish officials did not respond appropriately to the leak. The government was denounced for towing the shipwreck further out into the Atlantic Ocean—where it eventually sank—rather than to a port. “There was a huge lack of measures and tools from the Spanish government in particular,” Ezeizabarrena said. “[However], there was a huge response from civil society […] to work together [on restoration efforts].”Ionan Marigómez, professor of cellular biology at the University of the Basque Country, Spain, was the principal investigator on a federal coastal-surveillance programme named Orbankosta. He recorded the effects of the oil on the Basque coast and was a member of the Basque government''s technical advisory commission for the response to the Prestige spill. He was also chair of the government''s scientific committee. “Unfortunately, most of us scientists were not prepared to answer questions related to the biological impact of restoration strategies,” Marigómez said. “We lacked data to support our advice since continued monitoring is not conducted in the area […] and most of us had developed our scientific activity with too much focus on each one''s particular area when the problem needed a holistic view.”…the world consumes approximately 31 billion barrels of oil per year; more than 700 times the amount that leaked during the Deepwater spillFor disasters involving oil, oceanographic data to monitor and predict the movement of the spill is essential. Clean-up efforts were initially encouraged in Spain, but data provided by coastal-inspection programmes such as Orbankosta informed the decision to not clean up the Basque shoreline, allowing the remaining oil debris to disintegrate naturally. In fact, the cleaning activity that took place in Galicia only extended the oil pollution to the supralittoral zone—the area of the beach splashed by the high tide, rather than submerged by it—as well as to local soil deposits. On the Basque coast, restoration efforts were limited to regions where people were at risk, such as rocky areas near beaches and marinas.Eight years later, Galicia still suffers from the after-effects of the Prestige disaster. Thick subsurface layers of grey sand are found on beaches, sometimes under sand that seems to be uncontaminated. In Corme-Laxe Bay and Cies Island in Galicia, PAH levels have decreased. Studies have confirmed, however, that organisms exposed to the area''s sediments had accumulated PAHs in their bodies. Marigómez, for example, studied the long-term effects of the spill on mussels. Depending on their location, PAH levels decreased in the sampled mussel tissue between one and two years after the spill. However, later research showed that certain sites suffered later increases in the level of PAHs, due to the remobilization of oil residues (Cajaraville et al, 2006). Indeed, many populations of macroinvertebrate species—which are the keystones of coastal ecosystems—became extinct at the most-affected locations, although neighbouring populations recolonized these areas. The evidence suggests that only time will tell what will happen to the Galicia ecosystem. The same goes for oil-polluted environments around the world.The concern whether nature can recover from oil spills might seem extreme, considering that oil is a natural product derived from the earth. But too much of anything can be harmful and oil would remain locked underground without human efforts to extract it. “As from Paracelsus'' aphorism, the dose makes the poison,” Marigómez said.According to the US Energy Information Administration, the world consumes approximately 31 billion barrels of oil per year; more than 700 times the amount that leaked during the Deepwater spill. Humanity continues, in the words of some US politicians, to “drill, baby, drill!” On 12 October 2010, less than a year after the Gulf Coast disaster, US President Barack Obama declared that he was lifting the ban on deepwater drilling. It appears that George Carlin got it right again when he satirized a famous American anthem: “America, America, man sheds his waste on thee, and hides the pines with billboard signs from sea to oily sea!”     

Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase in brains of mice. Regional distribution in seven inbred mouse strains

Causal relationships have been suggested between aspects of human behavior and hyperuricemia associated with low tissue activities of the x-linked enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase. Brain is reported to have the highest content of HGPRT activity among body organs. Many studies have indicated that genetically distinct strains of mice exhibit strain-specific behavioral phenotypes. The present measurements of HGPRT were made to determine if genetically associated differences in regional distribution of brain HGPRT exist between several inbred mouse strains and if they were of sufficient magnitude to warrant a search for correlations with measures of behavior. Significant differences were found in overall brain content of HGPRT activity among seven inbred mouse strains, as well as in regional distribution of enzyme activity among eight structures of brains of each of the individual strains.     

A Thr357 to Ser polymorphism in homozygous and compound heterozygous subjects causes absent or reduced P2X7 function and impairs ATP-induced mycobacterial killing by macrophages

The P2X(7) receptor is a ligand-gated cation channel that is highly expressed on mononuclear leukocytes and that mediates ATP-induced apoptosis and killing of intracellular pathogens. There is a wide variation in P2X(7) receptor function between subjects, explained in part by four loss-of-function polymorphisms (R307Q, E496A, I568N, and a 5'-intronic splice site polymorphism), as well as rare mutations. In this study, we report the allele frequencies of 11 non-synonymous P2X(7) polymorphisms and describe a fifth loss-of-function polymorphism in the gene (1096C --> G), which changes Thr(357) to Ser (T357S) with an allele frequency of 0.08 in the Caucasian population. P2X(7) function was measured by ATP-induced ethidium(+) influx into peripheral blood lymphocytes and monocytes and, when compared with wild-type subjects, was reduced to 10-65% in heterozygotes, 1-18% in homozygotes, and 0-10% in compound heterozygotes carrying T357S and a second loss-of-function polymorphism. Overexpression of the T357S mutant P2X(7) in either HEK-293 cells or Xenopus oocytes gave P2X(7) function of approximately 50% that of wild-type constructs. Differentiation of monocytes to macrophages, which also up-regulates P2X(7), restored P2X(7) function to near normal in cells heterozygous for T357S and to a value 50-65% of wild-type in cells homozygous for T357S or compound heterozygous for T357S/E496A. However, macrophages from subjects that are compound heterozygous for either T357S/R307Q or T357S/stop codon had near-to-absent P2X(7) function. These functional deficits induced by T357S were paralleled by impaired ATP-induced apoptosis and mycobacteria killing in macrophages from these subjects. Lymphocytes, monocytes, and macrophages from subjects homozygous for T357S or compound heterozygous for T357S and a second loss-of-function allele have reduced or absent P2X(7) receptor function.     

Establishment of Ulmus pumila seedlings on steppe slopes of the northern Mongolian mountain taiga

The potential of Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila) to regenerate from seeds was experimentally studied on south-facing slopes in the northern Mongolian mountain taiga. These slopes are covered with a vegetation mosaic of different steppe communities and small, savanna-like, U. pumila open woodlands. The hypothesis is tested that the xeric microclimate and high herbivore densities limit the success of seedling establishment in U. pumila and thereby prevent elm from complete encroachment of the grassland-dominated slopes. Seeds were sown and 2-yr-old seedlings were planted prior to the growing season. The water supply was manipulated by irrigation, as was the feeding pressure by caterpillars with an insecticide. Large herbivores were excluded by fencing. Seeds germinated throughout the summer, but the emerged seedlings did not survive for more than 2 or 3 weeks. Germination rates increased with increasing soil water content and decreasing soil temperatures. Many seeds were consumed by granivores. Most planted 2-yr-old seedlings survived the two growing seasons covered by the study. However, the seedlings suffered from feeding damage by insects (gypsy moth, grasshoppers) and small mammals, from nitrogen deficiency and, to a lesser degree, from drought. The results suggest that high susceptibility of newly emerged seedlings to environmental stresses is a serious bottle neck for U. pumila that prevents them from the formation of closed forests on northern Mongolia's steppe slopes, whereas the probability for seedling survival after this early stage is high.     

The Role of Interruptions in polyQ in the Pathology of SCA1

At least nine dominant neurodegenerative diseases are caused by expansion of CAG repeats in coding regions of specific genes that result in abnormal elongation of polyglutamine (polyQ) tracts in the corresponding gene products. When above a threshold that is specific for each disease the expanded polyQ repeats promote protein aggregation, misfolding and neuronal cell death. The length of the polyQ tract inversely correlates with the age at disease onset. It has been observed that interruption of the CAG tract by silent (CAA) or missense (CAT) mutations may strongly modulate the effect of the expansion and delay the onset age. We have carried out an extensive study in which we have complemented DNA sequence determination with cellular and biophysical models. By sequencing cloned normal and expanded SCA1 alleles taken from our cohort of ataxia patients we have determined sequence variations not detected by allele sizing and observed for the first time that repeat instability can occur even in the presence of CAG interruptions. We show that histidine interrupted pathogenic alleles occur with relatively high frequency (11%) and that the age at onset inversely correlates linearly with the longer uninterrupted CAG stretch. This could be reproduced in a cellular model to support the hypothesis of a linear behaviour of polyQ. We clarified by in vitro studies the mechanism by which polyQ interruption slows down aggregation. Our study contributes to the understanding of the role of polyQ interruption in the SCA1 phenotype with regards to age at disease onset, prognosis and transmission.     

Reading the tea leaves of Congress. With a new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, scientific research in the USA might face budget cuts

The increasing influence of the Tea Party in Congress and politics has potential repercussions for public funding of scientific research in the USAIn 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the USA, amid hopes that he would fix the problems created or left unresolved by his predecessor. However, despite his positive mantra, “Yes we can,” the situation was going to get worse: the country was spiralling towards an economic recession, a collapsing residential real-estate market and the loss of millions of jobs. Now, the deficit lingers around US$14 trillion (US Department of the Treasury, 2011). In response to these hardships and the presence of a perceived ‘socialist'' president in office, a new political movement started brewing that would challenge both the Democrats and the Republicans—the two parties that have dominated US politics for generations. Known as the Tea Party, this movement has been gaining national momentum in its denouncement of the status quo of the government, especially in relation to federal spending, including the support of scientific research.The name is a play on the Boston Tea Party, at which more than 100 American colonists dumped 45 tonnes of tea into Boston Harbour (Massachusetts, USA) in 1773 to protest against the British taxation of imported tea. Whereas the 18th century Boston Tea Party formed to protest against a specific tax, the Tea Party of the 21st century protests against taxes and ‘big'' government in general.Many view Tea Party followers as modern muckrakers, but supporters claim their movement is fundamentally about upholding the US Constitution. Tea Party Patriots, a non-partisan organization, considers itself to be the official home of the Tea Party movement. Fuelled by the values of fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets, Tea Party Patriots believe, these three principles are granted by the Constitution, although not necessarily upheld by the administration.“If you read the Constitution, the limits of government involvement in society [are] pretty well-defined and our government has gone farther and farther beyond the specific limits of the Constitution,” said Mark Meckler, one of the co-founders of Tea Party Patriots. “Our Constitution is not designed as an empowering document, but as a limiting document… [and] was intended to be used as a weapon by the people against the government to keep it in the box.” Tea Partiers tend to be especially critical when it comes to spending tax dollars on bank bailouts and health care, but anything goes when it comes to cutting back on public spending—even science. “We believe everything needs to be on the table since the government is virtually bankrupt,” Meckler said. “We need to cut the waste, cut the abuse [and] get rid of the departments that shouldn''t exist.”Tea Partiers tend to be especially critical when it comes to spending tax dollars on bank bailouts and health care, but anything goes when […]cutting […] public spending—even scienceOn 19 February 2011, the US House of Representatives, which is currently controlled by the Republicans, passed a federal-spending bill for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year budget. Among other cuts, the bill called for billions of dollars to be slashed from the budgets of federal science agencies. If the bill is signed into law, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will have $1.6 billion cut from its budget—a 5.2% decrease—and the Department of Energy (DOE) will experience an 18% cut in funding for its Office of Science. Other agencies targeted include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Science Foundation (NSF; Anon, 2011; Cho, 2011). Although the US Senate, which has a Democratic majority, must consider the bill before any definite amendments to the budget are made, it is likely that there will be some cuts to science funding.Although the House is in favour of science-related cuts, President Obama supports spending more on science education, basic research and clean-energy research. He has also proposed an 11.8% increase in the budget of the DOE, as well as an 8% increase in the NSF budget (Office of Management and Budget, 2011).The House is in favour of science-related cuts, but President Obama is in favour of spending more on science education, basic science and clean-energy researchJoann Roskoski, acting assistant director of the Biology Directorate at the NSF, said her institute is strongly in favour of President Obama''s budget proposal. “President Obama is a very strong supporter of fundamental research and STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] education because he perceives it as investing in the future of the country,” she said. “These are just difficult budgetary times and we''ll just have to wait and see what happens. As they say, the president proposes and Congress disposes.”Karl Scheidt, a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois, USA), has four grants from federal agencies. “A couple of my grants expire this year, which is happening at the worst, worst possible time,” explained Scheidt, whose grants are funded by the NIH and the NSF. He added that although many politicians either do not understand or believe in the fundamentals of science, they still preach to the masses about what they ‘think'' they know. “I think it''s an absolute travesty that many people don''t understand science and that many of the Republicans who don''t fully understand science perpetuate incorrect assumptions and scientific falsehoods when speaking in public,” he said. “It makes the US less competitive and puts us collectively at a disadvantage relative to other nations if we don''t succeed in scientific education and innovative research in the future.”Although the Tea Party is not technically associated with the Republican Party, all Tea-Party representatives and senators ran as Republican candidates in the last election. While only one-third of seats in the Senate are on the ballot every two years for a six-year term, all House seats are for a two-year term. In the most recent Senatorial election, 50% of Tea Party-backed candidates won; 10 in total. 140 candidates for seats in the House of Representatives were backed by the Tea Party—all of whom were Republicans—but only 40 won. Nevertheless, with around 100 new Republicans in office, a House controlled by a Republican majority and most Congress-based Republicans in agreement with Tea Party ideals, the Tea Party actually has a lot of sway on the voting floor.Of course, as a fundamentally grass-roots movement, their influence is not limited to the halls of power. Since just before the November election last year, Tea Party-backed politicians have received more scrutiny and media exposure, meaning more people have listened to their arguments against spending on science. In fact, Republican politicians associated with the Tea Party have made critical and sometimes erroneous comments about science. Representative Michelle Bachman, for example, claimed that because carbon dioxide is a natural gas, it is not harmful to our atmosphere (Johnson, 2009). Representative Jack Kingston denounced the theory of evolution and stated that he did not come from a monkey (The Huffington Post, 2011). When asked how old he believes the Earth to be, Senator Rand Paul refused to answer (Binckes, 2010). He also introduced a bill to cut the NSF budget by 62%, and targeted the budget of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.Scheidt believes part of the challenge is that many scientists do not properly articulate the importance of their work to the public, and there is limited representation on behalf of science in Washington. “It''s difficult sometimes to advocate for and explain the critical importance of basic research and for the most part, Congress may not always appreciate the basic fundamental mission of organizations like the NIH,” Scheidt said. “Arlen Specter was one of the few people who could form coalitions with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle and communicate why scientific research is critical. Why discovering new ways to perform transplants and creating new medicines are so important to everyone.”…part of the challenge is that many scientists do not properly articulate the importance of their work to the public, and there is limited representation on behalf of science in WashingtonSpecter, a former senator, was Republican until 2009 when he decided to switch political parties. During the last Democratic primary, he lost the Pennsylvania Senate nomination after serving in Congress for more than four decades. The Democratic nominee, Joe Sestak, eventually lost the coveted seat to Pat Toomey, a Tea Party Republican who sponsored an amendment denying NIH funding for some grants while he was a House member. Toomey is also against funding climate science and clean-energy research with federal dollars.Specter was considered a strong supporter of biomedical research, especially cancer research. He was the catalyst that pushed through a great deal of pro-science legislation, such as adding approximately $10 billion to NIH funding as part of the stimulus package in 2009, and doubling NIH funding in the 1990s. As scientific research was so important to him, he served on the US Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies and on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Specter was a popular political champion of science not only because of all he had accomplished, but also because so few scientists are elected to office.Among those Democrats who lost their seats to Tea Party Republicans was Congressman Bill Foster. Foster, who once worked for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab)—which is funded by the DOE—represented Batavia, Ilinois, which is also where Fermilab has its headquarters. “The new representative in the district where Fermilab resides is Randy Hultgren, a Republican, who has been very supportive of the laboratory since he''s been elected,” said Cindy Conger, Chief Financial Officer at Fermilab. “He''s very interested in us and very interested […] in us having adequate funding.”However, Fermilab is suffering financially. “We will […] have some level of layoffs,” Conger said. “Inadequate federal funding could result in more layoffs or not being able to run our machines for part of the year. These are the things we are contemplating doing in the event of a significant budget cut. Nothing is off the table [but] we will do everything we can to run the [Tevatron] accelerator.”But Fermilab''s desperate appeal for $35 million per year for the next three fiscal years was denied by the Obama administration and not included in the 2012 White House budget request. As a result, the most powerful proton–antiproton accelerator in the USA, the Tevatron, is shutting down indefinitely near the end of this year.Another pro-science Republican is former Congressman John Porter, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He encouraged the federal funding of science while serving as chair of the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, as well as on the House Committee on Appropriations and Related Agencies. Like Scheidt, Porter said a problem is that not many members of Congress really understand science or what goes into scientific research.“Many members of Congress don''t realize that the money appropriated for the funding of scientific research through NIH, NSF […] is sent out to research institutes in their districts and states where the research is conducted,” said Porter, who retired from Congress in 2001 after serving for more than 20 years. “They simply haven''t been exposed to it and that''s the fault of the science community, which has a great responsibility to educate about the mechanisms on how we fund scientific research.”Today, Porter is vice-chair of the Foundation for the NIH and also chairs Research!America, a non-profit organization which aims to further medical, health and scientific research as higher national priorities. He also noted that industry would not fund scientific research in the way the government does because there would essentially be no profits. Therefore, federal funding remains essential.“Let''s take away the phones, iPads and everything else [those against the federal funding of science] depend on and see what''s left,” Porter said. “The US is the world leader in science, technology and research and the way we got there and the way we have created the technology that makes life easier […] is a result of making investments in that area.”For now, Scheidt said the best approach is to educate as many people as possible to understand that scientific research is a necessity, not a luxury. “We unfortunately have a very uneducated population in regard to science and it''s not 100% their fault,” he said. “However, if people took a real interest in science and paid as much attention to stem-cell or drug-discovery research as they did to the Grammy Awards or People magazine I think they would appreciate what''s going on in the science world.”…the best approach is to educate as many people as possible to understand that scientific research is a necessity, not a luxuryInstead, the USA is lagging behind its competitors when it comes to STEM education. According to the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the USA is ranked 17th on science and 25th on maths out of 34 countries (US Department of Education, 2010). “We''re in a cluster now, we''re no longer the leading country,” said D. Martin Watterson, a molecular biologist who sits on NIH peer-review committees to evaluate grant proposals. The reason, according to Watterson, is that the first things to be cut after a budget decrease are training grants for continuing education efforts. Moreover, the USA already lacks highly trained workers in the field of science. “In some disciplines, employers now look to other places in Europe and Asia to find those trained personnel,” Watterson said.Ultimately, most people at least want a final budget to be passed so that there is sufficient time to plan ahead. However, Georgetown University political science professor Clyde Wilcox thinks that a compromise is not so simple. “The problem is that it''s a three-way poker game. People are going to sit down and they''re going to be bargaining, negotiating and bluffing each other,” he said. “The House Republicans just want to cut the programs that they don''t like, so they''re not cutting any Republican programs for the most part.”As a result, institutions such as the EPA find themselves being targeted by the Republicans. Although there is not a filibuster-proof majority of Democrats in the Senate, they still are a majority and will try to preserve science funding. Wilcox said that it is not necessarily a good thing to continue negotiating if nothing gets done and the country is dependent on continuing resolutions.Although there is not a filibuster-proof majority of Democrats in the Senate, they still are a majority and will try to preserve science funding“What the real problem is, when push comes to shove, someone has to blink,” he said. “I don''t think there will be deep cuts in science for a number of reasons, one is science is consistent with the Democratic ideology of education and the Republican ideology of investment. And then, we don''t really spend that much on science anyway so you couldn''t come remotely close to balancing the budget even if you eliminated everything.”Although during his time in Congress representatives of both parties were not as polarized as they are today, Porter believes the reason they are now is because of the political climate. “The president has made [science] a very important issue on his agenda and unfortunately, there are many Republicans today that say if he''s for it, I''m against it,” Porter said. In fact, several government officials ignored repeated requests or declined to comment for this article.“It''s time for everybody from both parties to stand up for the country, put the party aside and find solutions to our problems,” Porter commented. “The American people didn''t just elect us to yell at each other, they elected us to do a job. You have to choose priorities and to me the most important priority is to have our children lead better lives, to have all human beings live longer, healthier, happier lives and to have our economy grow and prosper and our standard of living maintained—the only way to do that is to invest where we lead the world and that''s in science.”