The Four-eyed Journal » Research

Kevin Carter – Photography & ethics

jhay — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:43:16 +0000

My instructor in Socio-Anthropology class asked us to look up who was that “photographer who won a Pulitzer prize for a photo of a young girl struggling on to reach a feeding center somewhere in Africa.”

That photographer is Kevin Carter, born September 13, 1960 in Johannesburg and was an award-winning South African photojournalist and member of the “Bang-Bang Club”.

He became famous when he won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography on May 23, 1994 for this photo of an emaciated Sudanese toddler struggling to reach a feeding center in the village Ayod in southern Sudan. When the girl stopped to rest, a vulture landed behind her, perhaps sensing that death would soon overcome her.

Kevin Carter's Pulitzer prize winning photograph that changed his life & the world

When the photo first appeared in The New York Times on March 26, 1993 and drew massive public attention. However, Kevin Carter was criticized for allegedly not helping the girl:

“The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene.”

Months after winning the Pulitzer Prize, Kevin Carter committed suicide on July 27, 1994 by taping one end of a hose to his pickup truck’s exhaust pipe and running the other end to the passenger-side window. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning at the age of 33. Portions of Carter’s suicide note read:

“I am depressed … without phone … money for rent … money for child support … money for debts … money!!! … I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners…I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.”(source)

Our instructor was right, doing this kind of work – a sort of Ethnographic research which involves direct, first-hand observation of the subject’s daily behavior which can include participant observation – can have a drastic and often times negative impact on the observer/researcher’s life. In this case, it drove Kevin Carter to end his life.

Was Kevin Carter wrong in just taking the photo and allegedly not helping the struggling child? There has been much debate on this issue. I end with sharing this video presentation by four Media Ethics students that took on the ethics case of Photojournalist Kevin Carter and his infamous and award winning photograph “Sudanese Girl”.

Filipino Chemists/Inventors do we know more?

jhay — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:12:36 +0000

My cousin who’s in her second year in high school, asked me to look for five Filipino chemists and their contributions or inventions. Unlike the other times she asked help from me about school work, I could not give any answer the minute she asked me a question.

Which is quite disturbing on my part as my family, friends and school mates often label me as a “walking encyclopedia or dictionary” because of my geeky-ness I was giving out information about famous historical events and people, meaning of words and terms and explanation of biological processes whenever someone asks me. All this without consulting any references beforehand.

I’m no super geek and my photographic memory has no film so there are a lot that I don’t know about. Sadly, knowledge about the local science and technology realm is one of those. Like known Filipino inventors, scientists, researchers and technologies, every time I get asked about those, I am at a lost for words and I would have to consult a book or Google for answers. Ironic isn’t it, I’m a scientist by education and yet I know very little to nothing about the achievements of my fellow Filipino scientists past and present. I’m not alone on this as many many other students, even ordinary Filipino folk would also be unaware of this.

Who could blame us, our view of the scientific history, achievement and development have always been Western. When we hear of Filipino scientists we immediately exclaim “Ooh! Ahh! That’s amazing!” as if it’s something so rare it’s like seeing the Haley’s Comet in your lifetime. Scholars say that our view of our own history is skewed and flawed, I’m afraid our view of Filipino science is the same, or even worse.

But it’s a good thing that some schools are asking their students to look up and do some research about our Filipino scientists and their achievements. And I wish it could be taken ahead further. Like dedicate significant amount of science subjects to studying about Filipino scientists, inventors and the whole discipline. Heck, we are required to study Jose Rizal’s life and writings why can’t we make it mandatory to study local scientific discipline. And mind you, Rizal is also a scientist, among other things.

So there is a challenge for all of us, to know more not just about our history, but also of our scientists and their achievements. They go hand in hand actually, from history we would learn from our mistakes and have an idea of where we are heading, and with our own science, we could be better prepared or equipped to determine our own destiny.

Wait, I know students who have the same assignment and was led to this page by Google or Yahoo! would be wondering by now where or who are some of the Filipino chemists?

Here are five of them:

Amando Kapauan (July 4, 1931 – October 12, 1996) was a chemist and researcher. He graduated magna cum laude from University of the Philippines, Diliman in 1952, with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1959. (more info here)

Pío Andrade, Jr. is the best-selling author of the highly controversial book The Fooling of America, The Untold Story of Carlos P. Romulo that was published in 1986 and republished in 1991. The book is an exposé on Carlos P. Rómulo’s true character and political motives.

He made several researches on radiation chemistry, textile chemistry, food product development, pesticide chemistry, ethnobotany, and biomass energy. (more info here)

Julian Banzon - Filipino chemist, Julian Banzon researched methods of producing alternative fuels. Julian Banzon experimented with the production of ethyl esters fuels from sugarcane and coconut, and invented a means of extracting residual coconut oil by a chemical process rather than a physical process. (more info here)

Doctor Francisco Santos is an agricultural chemist who studied the nutritive values and chemical composition of local foods from the Philippines. His data was used to help detect and solve problems with Filipino diets. (more info here)

Francisco Quisumbing – Filipino chemist invented Quink ink, which is used in Parker Pens. Quink ink is named after the inventor. It is a quick drying ink with a cleaning property that prevents the ink from clogging the pen. (more info here)

Students please read the whole articles about them, don’t just copy + paste the text into your assignments. That’s plagiarism! It’s illegal and you might be flunked by your teacher if you do. Just write in your homework your own words on how you understood who these Filipino chemists are and their contributions to science. Lastly, use proper citation and here’s a free online tool to make it. It would not only teach you academic honesty, but you’re teachers would be impressed you know how to do research the right way.

Of mice, men and the fountain of life

jhay — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:39:47 +0000

Would you smell rotten-eggs to stay young? Okay, it’s an exaggeration. Well you don’t have to literally smell rotten eggs but just get a sniff of the gas that smells like rotten eggs and you could cheat death and stay young because you’ll end up in suspended animation. At least this is what some scientists had hoped for.

I’m talking about Hydrogen Sulfide which has been reported to induce suspended animation to mice by US researchers led by study senior author Dr. Warren Zapol of Massachusetts General Hospital. They further said that:

Hydrogen sulfide is the stinky gas that can kill workers who encounter it in sewers; but when administered to mice in small, controlled doses, within minutes it produces what appears to be totally reversible metabolic suppression.

Carson Chow blogged about this in Scientific Clearing House back in 2005 with the following details:

When the mice were exposed to 80 ppm of H2S, their oxygen consumption dropped by 50% in the first 5 minutes. After 6 hours, their metabolic rate dropped by 90% and the core body temperature reached 15 degrees Celsius where the ambient temperature was 13 degrees. When the mice were returned to room air and temperature, their metabolic rate and body temperature returned to normal.

Wait, what’s suspended animation?

Good question. Suspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. (Wikipedia)

The dream, which has been a major subject of science fiction, is to cheat death by temporarily stopping the body’s natural clock, thereby delaying death and preserving the human body for some future purpose like space travel or enabling one’s self to see and experience what life on Earth would be like centuries from now.

In the real world, suspended animation has its practical uses in the medical field. In particular suspended animation induced by hypothermia is an alternative to heart-lung machines in some open-heart surgeries. Another use is the preservation of living organs that would have to be transported over long distances to where patients need them.

Where do mice and Hydrogen sulfide come in?

Using gases falls under the chemical-induced suspended animation and it doesn’t cause brain or tissue damage as do hypothermia, which is temperature-induced suspended animation.

Ever since mice were put to suspended animation thanks to Hydrogen sulfide, it could also be used in larger mammals and eventually humans, in theory. This is exactly what scientists did. They moved on to sheep, because hey, if it will work in sheep there is greater chance it would also work in humans.

And why not? The possibilities were simply hard to resist. Again Carson Chow wrote:

If this works in humans, we may now have a means of reducing metabolic demand after traumatic injury or surgery. H2S may become a standard part of the repertoire of paramedics. I won’t bother to dwell on the space travel implications.

Unfortunately, the idea never worked on larger mammals as tests in sheep as conducted by Haouzi et al. had discouraging results. Aschwin de Wolf writing in Depressed Metabolism put it straightforwardly: “Hydrogen sulfide does not induce hypometabolism in sheep”

How can H2S induce hypometabolism in mice? The authors state that “the present results have little to offer on the pathways that are responsible for H2S-induced decrease of metabolism.” They raise the point that in small animals such as mice a large portion of metabolism is devoted to heat production instead of ATP production. In contrast, small reductions in oxygen utilization in humans, as produced by H2S exposure, will affect ATP generation. Or as Ikaria’s Csaba Szabo speculates in “Hydrogen sulphide and its therapeutic potential”, “the window of opportunity to compromise oxidative phosphorylation in a human, therefore, must be smaller than in the mouse.“

The authors do not expect that higher dosages of H2S will produce hypometabolism in large mammals because the 60 ppm that was administered to sheep already exceeds what is known to be toxic in humans.

So now the search for safe and effective means of inducing hypometabolism in humans goes on. The “fountain of life” remains to be an product of our desire for immortality and the Hydrogen sulfide will remain as such, smelling like rotten-eggs and in large doses, deadly to us humans.

James Watson resigns, Arroyo should follow

jhay — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:37:13 +0000

On the others side of the globe, the latest breaking news is that renowned DNA expert and Nobel Prize-winner James Watson has finally resigned from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to which he has been its Chancellor and board member for 43 years.

For all those who haven’t heard of who James Watson, he is one of the scientists who discovered the molecular structure of DNA in 1953 and for that, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine which he shared with Francis Crick, his partner in the discovery of the ‘secret of life.’ Remember highschool biology?

Since then, he has been revered and looked up to in the scientific community as one of its greatest members and known to be someone who loves debate and discussion.

However, things started to look dim for the 79-year-old American scientist when in an interview with The Sunday Times, the Nobel Prize-winner said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”.

His racist comments have sparked outrage not just in the scientific community but throughout the world. Many of his colleagues, friends and those who look up to an icon of genetics were shocked, saddened and baffled as to why such a statement would come from such a man of esteem.

This tide of outrage against the scientist has seemed to have watered down the celebration of the closing years of his career. The promotion for his new book “Avoid Boring People” has been nearly stopped, his scheduled public appearances and lectures cancelled and he has been suspended by the various medical and scientific institutions to which he is a member of or an administrator.

Though James Watson has offered an apology, it seems it wasn’t enough or it was too late for finally, he has resigned from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Below is his full statement taken from GenomeWeb Daily News:

Statement of Dr. James D. Watson

This morning I have conveyed to the Trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory my desire to retire immediately from my position as its Chancellor, as well as from my position on its Board, on which I have served for the past 43 years. Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue. The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired.

That the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is now one of the world’s premier sites for biological research and education has long warmed my heart. So I am grateful that its Board now will allow me to remain along my beloved Bungtown Road. Forty-nine years ago, as a newly appointed young Assistant Professor at Harvard, I gave my first course on this pernicious collection of diseases of uncontrolled cell growth and division. Cancer, then an intellectual black box, now, in part because of research at the Laboratory, is almost full lit. Though important facts remain undiscovered, there is no reason why they should not soon be found. Final victory is within our grasp. Strong in spirit and intensely focused, I wish to be among those at the victory line.

The ever quickening advances of science made possible by the success of the Human Genome Project will also soon let us see the essences of mental disease. Only after we understand them at the genetic level can we rationally seek out appropriate therapies for such illnesses as schizophrenia and bipolar disease. For the children of my sister and me, this moment can not come a moment too soon. Hell does not come close to describing the impact of psychotic disorders on human life.

This week’s events focus me ever more intensely on the moral values passed on to me by my father, whose Watson surname marks his long ago Scots-Irish Appalachian heritage; and by my mother, whose father, Lauchlin Mitchell, came from Glasgow and whose mother, Lizzie Gleason, had parents from Tipperary. To my great advantage, their lives were guided by a faith in reason; an honest application of its messages; and for social justice, especially the need for those on top to help care for the less fortunate. As an educator, I have always striven to see that the fruits of the American Dream are available to all.

I have been much blessed.

James D. Watson One Bungtown Road Cold Spring Harbor, New York October 2007

Sad yet shocking. I never thought that someone of so much esteem and education would end up saying something like that. Must be the effects of winning a Nobel Prize but I certainly hope not as I take it as something to be the effect of aging. You know that old saying, “old tigers never go down with out fight” or in this case, it’s one last hurah for the old man.

With his resignation, let’s hope that things will come around for James Watson, realize what he has done and has happened because of it. Lastly, I pray that Arroyo et. al does the same thing and resigns.

Gap between humans and chimps widens

jhay — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:13:38 +0000

An article from the National Geographic website has a basic laydown about the results of the latest mapping of the human genome.

According to the story, our DNA varies more widely from person to person. This is one of the conclusions scientists and geneticists had after analyzing new researches about the human genome. The genetic material found in every cell of our bodies that define and make us humans.

The new map provides a much clearer picture of human genetic variation, says geneticist and co-researcher Charles Lee of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

“This evidence is showing that we are more genetically unique from one anotherâ€”we all have individualized genomes,” he said.

Personalized DNA? You can bet a monkey’s butt on it. Which is not really surprising when one would consider that we humans are among the most dispersed organisms in the planet. We inhabit almost every terrain on Earth and continue to expand our territories, often with harmful effects to other species.

Evolutionary theory would support this and say that since we have a very wide range of distribution-we’re found almost anywhere in the planet, we would have more variation in our DNA since we have adapted and continue to adapt to more types of different habitat.

This also justifies the difference between ethnic groups and help us understand how they adapted to their specific environments; e.g. Why Asians have a smaller body build compared to their European cousins and why our African brothers are more resistant to HIV infections compared to our South American cousins and so forth.

Aside from shedding more light into those topics mentioned earlier, medicine will greatly benefit from this new research because now, we could better understand the effects of genes on diseases, how they originate, how they spread, how they are passed on from one generation to the next and of course the why-counterparts of these questions and more. We answer those questions, we would finally have a cure, even prevent age-old diseases like cancer, deformities and AIDS.

Lastly, as pointed out in the title of this piece, we have also come to the surprising suggestion that we humans are now more distant to chimpanzees that we previously thought. Before, studies suggested that we shared 99% of our genome with chimps, that has now changed and the figure is now somewhere between 96-97% similarity.

A difference of roughly 3% over the past million years has made us more humans than chimps. The question now is, what particular genes made us more humans instead of chimps?