As 2015 comes to an end, I always love to review the top newly named species of the year. Here are the top 10 (in alphabetical order) as determined by an international taxonomist committee:
As 2015 comes to an end, I always love to review the top newly named species of the year. Here are the top 10 (in alphabetical order) as determined by an international taxonomist committee:
“If you see an antimatter version of yourself running towards you, think twice before embracing.” –J. Richard Gott III
Everywhere we look in the Universe, we find that planets, stars, galaxies, and even the gas between them are all made of matter and not antimatter. Yet as far as we know, the laws of nature are symmetric between matter and antimatter: you can’t create or destroy one without the other.
Image credit: Karen Teramura, UHIfA / NASA.
This question — why the Universe is full of matter and not antimatter — is one of the greatest unsolved problems in theoretical physics. Yet it’s also, conceivably, the one most likely to fall in the coming year! There are four compelling scenarios that might solve this question, that of baryogenesis, that theoretical physics has uncovered, and there’s a good chance that the LHC’s run II will be sensitive to two of them.
Image credit: E. Siegel, from his book, Beyond The Galaxy.
“If you see an antimatter version of yourself running towards you, think twice before embracing.” –J. Richard Gott III
Everywhere we look in the Universe, we find that planets, stars, galaxies, and even the gas between them are all made of matter and not antimatter. Yet as far as we know, the laws of nature are symmetric between matter and antimatter: you can’t create or destroy one without the other.
Image credit: Karen Teramura, UHIfA / NASA.
This question — why the Universe is full of matter and not antimatter — is one of the greatest unsolved problems in theoretical physics. Yet it’s also, conceivably, the one most likely to fall in the coming year! There are four compelling scenarios that might solve this question, that of baryogenesis, that theoretical physics has uncovered, and there’s a good chance that the LHC’s run II will be sensitive to two of them.
Image credit: E. Siegel, from his book, Beyond The Galaxy.
If you have had the news on the last day or two you may have seen stories and images about the Missouri floods. Many of those images are from Eureka (where we live), Pacific (where my wife Kellie works) and Valley Park (which is on my commute to work). That picture of the submerged McDonald’s you may have seen on the news is in Union, Missouri, about 20 miles to the southwest of Eureka
We are dry, mostly, and doing okay. The basement was flooded during the initial 3 day rain event due to a failed sump pump and a couple downspouts that came unattached from the drain pipes during the heavy downfall. The hydrostatic pressure of the ground water on the foundation was simply too much to hold back. We fixed the drain spouts and had a new sump pump installed on Sunday and that stopped any more water from coming in. We are fortunate that we returned home from visiting my family in Michigan on Saturday instead of Sunday or the water would have been much higher.
Unfortunately it doesn’t take much water to ruin carpet pads and drywall. My son and I were able to get the carpets up and the pads out the back of the house with a lot of labor but not too much trouble. There are now 14 high powered and very noisy blowers and a super-sized dehumidifier running non-stop in the basement at a cost of $30 per day per machine (disaster capitalism is quite profitable). We are told everything will be dried out in 2 to 3 days.
We have learned a painful and expensive lesson about not having a sump pump rider on our home insurance. The rider would have covered damages from the failed pump. We also would have been covered if our dishwasher had overflowed but not from ground water. Fortunately, because we acted quickly, we didn’t have any significant content damage so the only costs will be drying the place out and installing new pads under the salvaged carpets. Kellie thinks she is getting some new furniture out of the deal. I have no idea how less fortunate folks that have far more damage are going to get through this financially.
Flood lessons to pass along: check your sump pump, downspouts and your insurance policy. Keep important stuff up off the basement floor. Purchase a generator to keep the sump pump running when the power fails.
Downtown Eureka is a true disaster. The sand bagging effort was futile against the record water levels as most of the businesses downtown have water over their front doors. O’Dell’s, our favorite Irish pub, will be out of commission for a long time so now we have to go across the freeway to have good beer from the tap. The businesses Eureka residents depend on will be out of commission for many months.
Many homes along the river have been lost and are now downstream. These homes are built on stilts and have survived many flood events in the past but stilts can only go so high. We can no longer use the climate of the past to guide our decisions on the future. The rules for the game of life have changed and we must adapt to those rules.
Eureka has now had two 500 year floods in the last 22 years. The increasing frequency of these “500 year” (or more) type events really brings home what James Hansen wrote about in “Storms of my Grandchildren”. I’m pretty sure these frequency estimates will be a meaningless descriptor in the future. It will be interesting to see what the spring brings as the climate change fueled El Nino really kicks in.
All the roads out of Eureka were closed except for one and that one was a parking lot most of the time. Semi tractors on curvy and hilly two lane roads are not a good combination. Many subdivisions in the area have been isolated for a couple days now. The river crested around 6 last night so water levels, and media coverage, are quickly receding and moving downriver. We are looking forward to returning to some type of normalcy, and increased urgency for action on climate change, in the New Year.
If you want to help the best thing to do is to demand increased action on climate change from your political leaders.
We will need a price on carbon (see Citizen’s Climate Lobby), increased investment in energy efficiency, renewables and nuclear, and adaptation plans for the climate changes that are unavoidable. The American Red Cross is doing great work in helping people get through these disasters. I’m sure they could use your support.
If you have had the news on the last day or two you may have seen stories and images about the Missouri floods. Many of those images are from Eureka (where we live), Pacific (where my wife Kellie works) and Valley Park (which is on my commute to work). That picture of the submerged McDonald’s you may have seen on the news is in Union, Missouri, about 20 miles to the southwest of Eureka
We are dry, mostly, and doing okay. The basement was flooded during the initial 3 day rain event due to a failed sump pump and a couple downspouts that came unattached from the drain pipes during the heavy downfall. The hydrostatic pressure of the ground water on the foundation was simply too much to hold back. We fixed the drain spouts and had a new sump pump installed on Sunday and that stopped any more water from coming in. We are fortunate that we returned home from visiting my family in Michigan on Saturday instead of Sunday or the water would have been much higher.
Unfortunately it doesn’t take much water to ruin carpet pads and drywall. My son and I were able to get the carpets up and the pads out the back of the house with a lot of labor but not too much trouble. There are now 14 high powered and very noisy blowers and a super-sized dehumidifier running non-stop in the basement at a cost of $30 per day per machine (disaster capitalism is quite profitable). We are told everything will be dried out in 2 to 3 days.
We have learned a painful and expensive lesson about not having a sump pump rider on our home insurance. The rider would have covered damages from the failed pump. We also would have been covered if our dishwasher had overflowed but not from ground water. Fortunately, because we acted quickly, we didn’t have any significant content damage so the only costs will be drying the place out and installing new pads under the salvaged carpets. Kellie thinks she is getting some new furniture out of the deal. I have no idea how less fortunate folks that have far more damage are going to get through this financially.
Flood lessons to pass along: check your sump pump, downspouts and your insurance policy. Keep important stuff up off the basement floor. Purchase a generator to keep the sump pump running when the power fails.
Downtown Eureka is a true disaster. The sand bagging effort was futile against the record water levels as most of the businesses downtown have water over their front doors. O’Dell’s, our favorite Irish pub, will be out of commission for a long time so now we have to go across the freeway to have good beer from the tap. The businesses Eureka residents depend on will be out of commission for many months.
Many homes along the river have been lost and are now downstream. These homes are built on stilts and have survived many flood events in the past but stilts can only go so high. We can no longer use the climate of the past to guide our decisions on the future. The rules for the game of life have changed and we must adapt to those rules.
Eureka has now had two 500 year floods in the last 22 years. The increasing frequency of these “500 year” (or more) type events really brings home what James Hansen wrote about in “Storms of my Grandchildren”. I’m pretty sure these frequency estimates will be a meaningless descriptor in the future. It will be interesting to see what the spring brings as the climate change fueled El Nino really kicks in.
All the roads out of Eureka were closed except for one and that one was a parking lot most of the time. Semi tractors on curvy and hilly two lane roads are not a good combination. Many subdivisions in the area have been isolated for a couple days now. The river crested around 6 last night so water levels, and media coverage, are quickly receding and moving downriver. We are looking forward to returning to some type of normalcy, and increased urgency for action on climate change, in the New Year.
If you want to help the best thing to do is to demand increased action on climate change from your political leaders.
We will need a price on carbon (see Citizen’s Climate Lobby), increased investment in energy efficiency, renewables and nuclear, and adaptation plans for the climate changes that are unavoidable. The American Red Cross is doing great work in helping people get through these disasters. I’m sure they could use your support.
A follow up to the brilliantly successful the year in stoats: 2014. There can be no doubt about the picture of the year:
If you’re looking for a review of the climate-type events of the year then something like ATTP’s will be of use. This is one post per month from me, chosen without specific criteria. There was more science than I expected in the past year, but the march of politics continues inexorably.
A follow up to the brilliantly successful the year in stoats: 2014. There can be no doubt about the picture of the year:
If you’re looking for a review of the climate-type events of the year then something like ATTP’s will be of use. This is one post per month from me, chosen without specific criteria. There was more science than I expected in the past year, but the march of politics continues inexorably.
What was startling about it was that I’m getting used to mainly hearing from atheists calling me a mangina or such on that medium, so it was a break from the usual. On a lark I took a look at the video.
How anyone can be convinced by that babbling incompetent is a mystery — I guess he just tells them what they want to hear.
He has written a “book”, he says, titled “Darwin Skeptics: A Select List of Science Academics, Scientists, and Scholars Who are Skeptical of Darwinism“. It is what it says it is, a list of people with advanced degrees who are some form of creationist. There are 3000 names on it. I browsed it briefly before sending it off to the Science Inquisition (I lie — there is no science inquisition, and no one really gives a damn what nonsense you believe, as long as it doesn’t poison your teaching or research) and was unimpressed. Most of the people on it are not biologists, and most of those who are are antiquated emeritus professors. You will find cranks in every field of endeavor, and you quickly learn to ignore the noise and drill down to the substance.
He also says something interesting, and I even agreed with Bergman, briefly, which says that you’ll always find something. He quotes an Ernst Mayr article.
First, Darwinism rejects all supernatural phenomena and causations. The theory of evolution by natural selection explains the adaptedness and diversity of the world solely materialistically. It no longer requires God as creator or designer (although one is certainly still free to believe in God even if one accepts evolution). Darwin pointed out that creation, as described in the Bible and the origin accounts of other cultures, was contradicted by almost any aspect of the natural world. Every aspect of the “wonderful design” so admired by the natural theologians could be explained by natural selection. (A closer look also reveals that design is often not so wonderful—see “Evolution and the Origins of Disease,” by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams; Scientific American, November 1998.) Eliminating God from science made room for strictly scientific explanations of all natural phenomena; it gave rise to positivism; it produced a powerful intellectual and spiritual revolution, the effects of which have lasted to this day.
I don’t think that’s at all true — we don’t exclude explanations a priori. I’m reminded of a famous Isaac Asimov quote: “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka’ but ‘That’s funny…'” We’re always on the lookout for odd result that doesn’t fit our expectations, and when we get one, we’re going to take the whole system apart looking for an explanation. The thing is that “god” is not a particularly useful hypothesis, and it’s always going to be down near the bottom of any list of explanations, and in particular, the lack of any defined characters of this “god” being makes it awfully hard to test.
Remember the “neutrinos travel faster than light” anomaly? That was a good example. Nobody expected that neutrinos will travel faster than light, but they didn’t just reject results that suggested they did — they published them. Then they took everything apart trying to figure out what was going on, and eventually discovered an equipment error. “Faulty synchronization” turned out to be a more productive hypothesis than “God did it,” and so far that latter hypothesis has been a useless dud on every occasion it comes up. It’s not that scientists have a prior commitment to rejecting religious hypotheses, but that the theologians have given us such crappy definitions of their gods’ actions that we can’t evaluate them.
So it’s your fault, Jerry Bergman. Also, Mayr is often annoyingly wrong.
But my favorite part of the video starts at about 20 minutes and 20 seconds in. That’s where Bergman announces that everything, except subatomic particles, is irreducibly complex, and then spends the rest of the video explaining his brilliant idea that carbon is an example of an irreducibly complex molecule. He doesn’t even understand the concept he’s talking about!
Here’s Behe’s definition of the phrase:
An irreducibly complex evolutionary pathway is one that contains one or more unselected steps (that is, one or more necessary-but-unselected mutations). The degree of irreducible complexity is the number of unselected steps in the pathway.
Notice that he’s talking about “evolutionary pathways” and selected vs. unselected steps. Carbon was not produced by an evolutionary pathway, and every step in the process of nucleosynthesis (the reactions in stars that produce heavier atoms from hydrogen and helium) was unselected. Irreducible complexity simply doesn’t apply.
It also destroys the utility of the idea to creationists. They’re out to baffle people with elaborate analyses of molecular machines, remember; it’s just not as bewildering to lay people if you just point at an enzyme and say, Well, it’s got carbon in it, therefore god made it. Oooh, look, nitrogen. Well that does it — it’s just too complex for my mind to grasp.
What you need for the creationist concept of irreducible complexity is something complex, first of all; then it needs to be a collection of interacting parts, like a flagellum or a blood clotting pathway; and finally you need to be able to point to one piece of that complexity and say that you can’t imagine how it got there, and the whole thing falls apart if it’s not there. Carbon doesn’t fit that paradigm.
Where IC fails is in that word “selected”. Selection is important in generating functionality, but most of the features in any pathway will have arisen by chance processes — that is, they were initially unselected — and some of them will be shaped by selection into greater functionality. There will also be attributes that slip through the sieve of natural selection but do have functions. There is such a thing as constructive neutral evolution, and simple pathways tend to become more complex by the action of Muller’s Ratchet. Behe’s hypothesis can only be made in the complete absence of knowledge about how evolution actually works, relying on little more than a folk idea about how evolution operates only by natural selection. (Mayr also seemed to share that vision of evolutionary mechanisms, unfortunately.)
What was startling about it was that I’m getting used to mainly hearing from atheists calling me a mangina or such on that medium, so it was a break from the usual. On a lark I took a look at the video.
How anyone can be convinced by that babbling incompetent is a mystery — I guess he just tells them what they want to hear.
He has written a “book”, he says, titled “Darwin Skeptics: A Select List of Science Academics, Scientists, and Scholars Who are Skeptical of Darwinism“. It is what it says it is, a list of people with advanced degrees who are some form of creationist. There are 3000 names on it. I browsed it briefly before sending it off to the Science Inquisition (I lie — there is no science inquisition, and no one really gives a damn what nonsense you believe, as long as it doesn’t poison your teaching or research) and was unimpressed. Most of the people on it are not biologists, and most of those who are are antiquated emeritus professors. You will find cranks in every field of endeavor, and you quickly learn to ignore the noise and drill down to the substance.
He also says something interesting, and I even agreed with Bergman, briefly, which says that you’ll always find something. He quotes an Ernst Mayr article.
First, Darwinism rejects all supernatural phenomena and causations. The theory of evolution by natural selection explains the adaptedness and diversity of the world solely materialistically. It no longer requires God as creator or designer (although one is certainly still free to believe in God even if one accepts evolution). Darwin pointed out that creation, as described in the Bible and the origin accounts of other cultures, was contradicted by almost any aspect of the natural world. Every aspect of the “wonderful design” so admired by the natural theologians could be explained by natural selection. (A closer look also reveals that design is often not so wonderful—see “Evolution and the Origins of Disease,” by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams; Scientific American, November 1998.) Eliminating God from science made room for strictly scientific explanations of all natural phenomena; it gave rise to positivism; it produced a powerful intellectual and spiritual revolution, the effects of which have lasted to this day.
I don’t think that’s at all true — we don’t exclude explanations a priori. I’m reminded of a famous Isaac Asimov quote: “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka’ but ‘That’s funny…'” We’re always on the lookout for odd result that doesn’t fit our expectations, and when we get one, we’re going to take the whole system apart looking for an explanation. The thing is that “god” is not a particularly useful hypothesis, and it’s always going to be down near the bottom of any list of explanations, and in particular, the lack of any defined characters of this “god” being makes it awfully hard to test.
Remember the “neutrinos travel faster than light” anomaly? That was a good example. Nobody expected that neutrinos will travel faster than light, but they didn’t just reject results that suggested they did — they published them. Then they took everything apart trying to figure out what was going on, and eventually discovered an equipment error. “Faulty synchronization” turned out to be a more productive hypothesis than “God did it,” and so far that latter hypothesis has been a useless dud on every occasion it comes up. It’s not that scientists have a prior commitment to rejecting religious hypotheses, but that the theologians have given us such crappy definitions of their gods’ actions that we can’t evaluate them.
So it’s your fault, Jerry Bergman. Also, Mayr is often annoyingly wrong.
But my favorite part of the video starts at about 20 minutes and 20 seconds in. That’s where Bergman announces that everything, except subatomic particles, is irreducibly complex, and then spends the rest of the video explaining his brilliant idea that carbon is an example of an irreducibly complex molecule. He doesn’t even understand the concept he’s talking about!
Here’s Behe’s definition of the phrase:
An irreducibly complex evolutionary pathway is one that contains one or more unselected steps (that is, one or more necessary-but-unselected mutations). The degree of irreducible complexity is the number of unselected steps in the pathway.
Notice that he’s talking about “evolutionary pathways” and selected vs. unselected steps. Carbon was not produced by an evolutionary pathway, and every step in the process of nucleosynthesis (the reactions in stars that produce heavier atoms from hydrogen and helium) was unselected. Irreducible complexity simply doesn’t apply.
It also destroys the utility of the idea to creationists. They’re out to baffle people with elaborate analyses of molecular machines, remember; it’s just not as bewildering to lay people if you just point at an enzyme and say, Well, it’s got carbon in it, therefore god made it. Oooh, look, nitrogen. Well that does it — it’s just too complex for my mind to grasp.
What you need for the creationist concept of irreducible complexity is something complex, first of all; then it needs to be a collection of interacting parts, like a flagellum or a blood clotting pathway; and finally you need to be able to point to one piece of that complexity and say that you can’t imagine how it got there, and the whole thing falls apart if it’s not there. Carbon doesn’t fit that paradigm.
Where IC fails is in that word “selected”. Selection is important in generating functionality, but most of the features in any pathway will have arisen by chance processes — that is, they were initially unselected — and some of them will be shaped by selection into greater functionality. There will also be attributes that slip through the sieve of natural selection but do have functions. There is such a thing as constructive neutral evolution, and simple pathways tend to become more complex by the action of Muller’s Ratchet. Behe’s hypothesis can only be made in the complete absence of knowledge about how evolution actually works, relying on little more than a folk idea about how evolution operates only by natural selection. (Mayr also seemed to share that vision of evolutionary mechanisms, unfortunately.)
As 2015 draws to a close today, all I can think is: Another year in the can. Since my family is here, and it’s a holiday, I’m going to keep this one brief and wish everyone a Happy New Year.
In addition, I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen in 2016. Who could have predicted that last year would begin with a measles outbreak centered at Disneyland that would end up inspiring a law in California that I never would have thought possible, namely SB 277, which eliminates nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. Who could have predicted that the antivaccine movement, in particular Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., would get all chummy with the Nation of Islam? Knowing that predictions are a fool’s errand, I still can’t resist making a few before I retire to my parents’ house to see sisters and my nephews. So here goes. Most predictions will be painfully obvious; some not. In 2016, I predict:
As the 2016-2017 school year approaches, which is the first year nonmedical exemptions will be banned, the antivaccine movement in California will get even crazier. (I know, I know. This is obvious, but I thought I’d start with low hanging fruit.)
Stanislaw Burzynski will slither away from justice yet again. (I really hope I’m mistaken about this one, but fear that I am not.)
Robert O. Young will also slither away from justice. (Again, I hope I’m wrong, but I’m in a pessimistic mood.)
There will be more measles and pertussis outbreaks, thanks to antivaccine loons. (Yes, this is a no-brainer.)
I will be depressed in May because, due to a conflict with my real job, I will not be able to speak at the Science-Based Medicine day of NECSS.
We will finally see the documents that the “CDC whistleblower” William Thompson gave to Rep. Bill Posey and that Ben Swann currently has. There will be no evidence in them that the CDC covered up a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in African-American boys, but antivaccine loons will do their best to spin it that way. (Some readers know that I’m cheating a bit on this one.)
The sham that is right-to-try will spread to most of the remaining states that haven’t passed it yet.
More academic medical centers will embrace quackademic medicine.
Finally, because of all these pessimistic predictions, there will be much Insolence in 2016.
Oh, and maybe I’ll have to attend one of these Michigan Psychic Fairs. They’re all over southeast Michigan, a couple of locations pretty close to where I live.
What are your predictions, my minions?
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1R1rVw0
As 2015 draws to a close today, all I can think is: Another year in the can. Since my family is here, and it’s a holiday, I’m going to keep this one brief and wish everyone a Happy New Year.
In addition, I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen in 2016. Who could have predicted that last year would begin with a measles outbreak centered at Disneyland that would end up inspiring a law in California that I never would have thought possible, namely SB 277, which eliminates nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. Who could have predicted that the antivaccine movement, in particular Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., would get all chummy with the Nation of Islam? Knowing that predictions are a fool’s errand, I still can’t resist making a few before I retire to my parents’ house to see sisters and my nephews. So here goes. Most predictions will be painfully obvious; some not. In 2016, I predict:
As the 2016-2017 school year approaches, which is the first year nonmedical exemptions will be banned, the antivaccine movement in California will get even crazier. (I know, I know. This is obvious, but I thought I’d start with low hanging fruit.)
Stanislaw Burzynski will slither away from justice yet again. (I really hope I’m mistaken about this one, but fear that I am not.)
Robert O. Young will also slither away from justice. (Again, I hope I’m wrong, but I’m in a pessimistic mood.)
There will be more measles and pertussis outbreaks, thanks to antivaccine loons. (Yes, this is a no-brainer.)
I will be depressed in May because, due to a conflict with my real job, I will not be able to speak at the Science-Based Medicine day of NECSS.
We will finally see the documents that the “CDC whistleblower” William Thompson gave to Rep. Bill Posey and that Ben Swann currently has. There will be no evidence in them that the CDC covered up a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in African-American boys, but antivaccine loons will do their best to spin it that way. (Some readers know that I’m cheating a bit on this one.)
The sham that is right-to-try will spread to most of the remaining states that haven’t passed it yet.
More academic medical centers will embrace quackademic medicine.
Finally, because of all these pessimistic predictions, there will be much Insolence in 2016.
Oh, and maybe I’ll have to attend one of these Michigan Psychic Fairs. They’re all over southeast Michigan, a couple of locations pretty close to where I live.
During the holiday season, Kim, Liz and I are taking a short break from blogging. We are posting some of our favorite posts from the past year. Here’s one of them, originally posted on July 27, 2015:
by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH
The occupational health community, coal miners, their families and labor advocates are mourning the loss of physician Donald Rasmussen, 87.
For more than 50 years, he diagnosed and treated coal miners with work-related lung disease, first at the then Miners Memorial Hospital in Beckley, WV and later at his own black lung clinic. A lengthy story by John Blankenship in Beckley’s Register-Herald written two years ago profiledDr. Rasmussen’s career.
“ In 1962, a young doctor from Manassa, Colorado, saw a help wanted advertisement in a medical journal needing doctors in Beckley at the then Miners Memorial Hospital. ‘I was looking for a place to set up practice after getting out of the Army,’ Rasmussen recalled. ‘I had never been to West Virginia and was a little skeptical about the move.’ But when the doctor arrived in Beckley he was impressed with what he saw. ‘The scenic beauty of the area, the wonderful people who lived here and the staff and the work going on at the Miners hospital were simply amazing.’”
“Rasmussen began working with coal miners, which would become his life’s mission. ‘Before I came here, I really had no exposure or knowledge about coal miner’s lung disease, known today as black lung,’ he said. Rasmussen says he began to see many miners who experienced shortness of breath and other trouble with their lungs and breathing. ‘I was asked to evaluate some of the miners.’”
“…For coal miners and their families, Rasmussen became known as the ‘doctor with a heart.’ But Rasmussen said he was just doing his job. “I wasn’t trying to take one side over another,” he explained. ‘But I saw a lot of injustice being done to coal miners and their families.’”
Evan Smith with the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center writes:
“There is no single source that can catch the breadth of his work, but any account of the black lung movement and the current state of the disease must include his name. In the early days of the black lung movement, Dr. Rasmussen was one of the key players in the group called Physicians for the Miners’ Health and Safety that provided medical support for miners’ experiences with black lung—a disease that most of the medical community refused to acknowledge at the time.
Dr. Rasmussen’s evidence-based approach and detailed research helped to prove that coal-mine dust causes breathing problems that may not show up on x-ray and may not show up without quality exercise testing. Dr. Rasmussen’s advocacy contributed to the passage of the landmark 1969 Coal Act which set the first federal limits on miners’ exposure to coal-mine dust and created the federal black lung benefits system for miners disabled by the disease.
The Charleston (WV) Gazette’sPaul J. Nyden explains Rasmussen’s role in the larger fight for worker health and safety:
“Rasmussen, Dr. Isadore E. Buff and Dr. Hawey Wells helped spark growing concerns about black lung disease throughout the coalfields, when they spoke in union halls, schools and churches. The black lung issue came to statewide and national attention after a Nov. 20, 1968, methane and coal dust explosion killed 78 miners in Consolidation Coal’s No. 9 Mine between Mannington and Fairmont in Marion County. “
“In the wake of that tragedy, miners at the East Gulf Mine near Rhodell walked out on strike on Feb. 18, 1969, protesting the failure of the state Legislature to pass black lung legislation. By March 5, when the state Senate began debating the bill, more than 40,000 of the state’s 43,000 miners were on strike. Rasmussen, Buff and Wells played a central role in backing the strike and pressuring the state Legislature to pass its first black lung law. They helped counter many medical professionals who continued to deny that black lung was a serious health threat. After then-Gov. Arch Moore signed the bill on March 11, miners returned to work the next morning. “
Rasmussen’s early papers include “Pulmonary impairment in southern West Virginia coal miners” (Am Rev Respir Dis (1968)), “Respiratory function in southern Appalachian coal miners (Am Rev Respir Dis (1971)), “Patterns of physiological impairment in coal workers’ pneumoconiosis” (Ann N Y Acad Sci (1972)), and “Impairment of oxygen transfer in dyspneic, nonsmoking soft coal miners (J Occup Med (1971)).
Physicians who worked with Dr. Rasmussen are offering their own tributes. Karen Mulloy, an occupational medicine physician at Case Western Reserve University told me:
“He was an exceptional human being. I had the privilege of working for him for 5 years from 1970 to
1975. It was my first job in the medical field, as a cardio-pulmonary technician, testing the miners in his lab for Black Lung. His compassion for the miners and his righteous anger over the inequities that faced them and the coal companies refusal to make the coal mines safe was more than inspiring. His example of how a doctor of the people could be was the reason I went to medical school and has been the guiding principle of my life.”
Robert Cohen, MD, an expert in pulmonary medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told me:
“I first met Don in 1994 at a Black Lung clinics conference and have been in touch with him, advised by him, and mentored by him ever since. He was a gentle, soft spoken man with a huge heart, who worked tirelessly to merge science and clinical medicine with his passion for social justice, and in this case, to give coal miners a fair shake in the battle to be compensated for their occupational illness.”
“His early work on the exercise physiology of black lung disease lead to the inclusion of exercise testing with arterial blood gases in the black lung disability evaluation regulations. “
J. Davitt McAteer, one of the nation’s leading experts on miners’ health and safety, added this:
“When the definitive history of the black lung issue is written, Dr. Donald Rasmussen will be recognized as the central figure. By bringing scientific evidence to the debate, he created the momentum which resulted in the passage of state and federal laws to protect miners’ health.”
McAteer attended Dr. Rasmussen’s memorial service and sent along a copy of a eulogy. It was offered by Craig Robinson who was a VISTA volunteer in the 1960’s when he first met Dr. Rasmussen. Robinson remarks on a recent meeting of Rasmussen and former ABC anchor Ted Koppel.
Joe Main, the assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, and former H&S director for the United Mine Workers issued a statement saying:
“The coal mining community has lost one of its most passionate advocates. …Dr. Rasmussen was a humble man, and he would say he was merely a physician performing his duty to his patients. But for so many of us who shared his vision, he was a hero. He will be greatly missed by miners and their families across the country whose lives he touched.”
Dr. Rasmussen passed away on July 23. He continued to see patients in his clinic until May 2015 when he suffered a fall. His family says “he’s now moved his offices upstairs.”
[Update (8/3/15): The New York Times’ published on 8/2/15 an obituary about Dr. Rasmussenentitled “Crusader for Coal Miners’ Health.”]
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1Ts3qpm
During the holiday season, Kim, Liz and I are taking a short break from blogging. We are posting some of our favorite posts from the past year. Here’s one of them, originally posted on July 27, 2015:
by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH
The occupational health community, coal miners, their families and labor advocates are mourning the loss of physician Donald Rasmussen, 87.
For more than 50 years, he diagnosed and treated coal miners with work-related lung disease, first at the then Miners Memorial Hospital in Beckley, WV and later at his own black lung clinic. A lengthy story by John Blankenship in Beckley’s Register-Herald written two years ago profiledDr. Rasmussen’s career.
“ In 1962, a young doctor from Manassa, Colorado, saw a help wanted advertisement in a medical journal needing doctors in Beckley at the then Miners Memorial Hospital. ‘I was looking for a place to set up practice after getting out of the Army,’ Rasmussen recalled. ‘I had never been to West Virginia and was a little skeptical about the move.’ But when the doctor arrived in Beckley he was impressed with what he saw. ‘The scenic beauty of the area, the wonderful people who lived here and the staff and the work going on at the Miners hospital were simply amazing.’”
“Rasmussen began working with coal miners, which would become his life’s mission. ‘Before I came here, I really had no exposure or knowledge about coal miner’s lung disease, known today as black lung,’ he said. Rasmussen says he began to see many miners who experienced shortness of breath and other trouble with their lungs and breathing. ‘I was asked to evaluate some of the miners.’”
“…For coal miners and their families, Rasmussen became known as the ‘doctor with a heart.’ But Rasmussen said he was just doing his job. “I wasn’t trying to take one side over another,” he explained. ‘But I saw a lot of injustice being done to coal miners and their families.’”
Evan Smith with the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center writes:
“There is no single source that can catch the breadth of his work, but any account of the black lung movement and the current state of the disease must include his name. In the early days of the black lung movement, Dr. Rasmussen was one of the key players in the group called Physicians for the Miners’ Health and Safety that provided medical support for miners’ experiences with black lung—a disease that most of the medical community refused to acknowledge at the time.
Dr. Rasmussen’s evidence-based approach and detailed research helped to prove that coal-mine dust causes breathing problems that may not show up on x-ray and may not show up without quality exercise testing. Dr. Rasmussen’s advocacy contributed to the passage of the landmark 1969 Coal Act which set the first federal limits on miners’ exposure to coal-mine dust and created the federal black lung benefits system for miners disabled by the disease.
The Charleston (WV) Gazette’sPaul J. Nyden explains Rasmussen’s role in the larger fight for worker health and safety:
“Rasmussen, Dr. Isadore E. Buff and Dr. Hawey Wells helped spark growing concerns about black lung disease throughout the coalfields, when they spoke in union halls, schools and churches. The black lung issue came to statewide and national attention after a Nov. 20, 1968, methane and coal dust explosion killed 78 miners in Consolidation Coal’s No. 9 Mine between Mannington and Fairmont in Marion County. “
“In the wake of that tragedy, miners at the East Gulf Mine near Rhodell walked out on strike on Feb. 18, 1969, protesting the failure of the state Legislature to pass black lung legislation. By March 5, when the state Senate began debating the bill, more than 40,000 of the state’s 43,000 miners were on strike. Rasmussen, Buff and Wells played a central role in backing the strike and pressuring the state Legislature to pass its first black lung law. They helped counter many medical professionals who continued to deny that black lung was a serious health threat. After then-Gov. Arch Moore signed the bill on March 11, miners returned to work the next morning. “
Rasmussen’s early papers include “Pulmonary impairment in southern West Virginia coal miners” (Am Rev Respir Dis (1968)), “Respiratory function in southern Appalachian coal miners (Am Rev Respir Dis (1971)), “Patterns of physiological impairment in coal workers’ pneumoconiosis” (Ann N Y Acad Sci (1972)), and “Impairment of oxygen transfer in dyspneic, nonsmoking soft coal miners (J Occup Med (1971)).
Physicians who worked with Dr. Rasmussen are offering their own tributes. Karen Mulloy, an occupational medicine physician at Case Western Reserve University told me:
“He was an exceptional human being. I had the privilege of working for him for 5 years from 1970 to
1975. It was my first job in the medical field, as a cardio-pulmonary technician, testing the miners in his lab for Black Lung. His compassion for the miners and his righteous anger over the inequities that faced them and the coal companies refusal to make the coal mines safe was more than inspiring. His example of how a doctor of the people could be was the reason I went to medical school and has been the guiding principle of my life.”
Robert Cohen, MD, an expert in pulmonary medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told me:
“I first met Don in 1994 at a Black Lung clinics conference and have been in touch with him, advised by him, and mentored by him ever since. He was a gentle, soft spoken man with a huge heart, who worked tirelessly to merge science and clinical medicine with his passion for social justice, and in this case, to give coal miners a fair shake in the battle to be compensated for their occupational illness.”
“His early work on the exercise physiology of black lung disease lead to the inclusion of exercise testing with arterial blood gases in the black lung disability evaluation regulations. “
J. Davitt McAteer, one of the nation’s leading experts on miners’ health and safety, added this:
“When the definitive history of the black lung issue is written, Dr. Donald Rasmussen will be recognized as the central figure. By bringing scientific evidence to the debate, he created the momentum which resulted in the passage of state and federal laws to protect miners’ health.”
McAteer attended Dr. Rasmussen’s memorial service and sent along a copy of a eulogy. It was offered by Craig Robinson who was a VISTA volunteer in the 1960’s when he first met Dr. Rasmussen. Robinson remarks on a recent meeting of Rasmussen and former ABC anchor Ted Koppel.
Joe Main, the assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, and former H&S director for the United Mine Workers issued a statement saying:
“The coal mining community has lost one of its most passionate advocates. …Dr. Rasmussen was a humble man, and he would say he was merely a physician performing his duty to his patients. But for so many of us who shared his vision, he was a hero. He will be greatly missed by miners and their families across the country whose lives he touched.”
Dr. Rasmussen passed away on July 23. He continued to see patients in his clinic until May 2015 when he suffered a fall. His family says “he’s now moved his offices upstairs.”
[Update (8/3/15): The New York Times’ published on 8/2/15 an obituary about Dr. Rasmussenentitled “Crusader for Coal Miners’ Health.”]
