Brent Kearney

This week, there was a bit of a splash in science news about results of a study out of Professor David Sinclair’s lab at Harvard (Oberdoerffer, et al.) — “potential universal mechanism of aging” discovered, was the media spin. A salient bit of the report for many people was that resveratrol (rez-vair-a-trol) was used to stimulate the production of sirtuin in mice, which in turn allowed them to live up to 46% longer. Does this mean we should all be supplementing with resveratrol?

The Wikipedia article on resveratrol is filled with contradictions on its efficacy as a fountain-of-youth supplement. Some studies have it extending the life of some creatures by as much as 56%, while others showed no significant results at all. I had been convinced by Ray & Terry that it was a promising enough compound to add to my supplement regime. However, since some studies failed to show health benefits in mammals, and others showed that there is practically no evidence of efficacy in humans due to resveratrol’s lack of bioavailability, I grew skeptical and stopped buying it.

After researching this latest finding from Harvard, I was intrigued to discover that those in the know — namely, Dr. Sinclair and his team of Resveratrol researchers — personally supplement with the substance. The bioavailability problem can apparently be mitigated by microencapsulation, which protects resveratrol from oxidation and damage from heat and light, and allows it to by-pass the harsh digestive environment of the stomach so that it can be absorbed into the blood stream when it reaches the intestines. Including quercetin in the formulation also helps absorption.

There may be side-effects to supplementing with resveratrol, however. One of them may be ligament and tendon troubles:

It is possible that the anti-angiogenesis effect of resveratrol can cause ligament or tendon issues; those tissues are so poorly supplied with blood a reduction of angiogenesis could delay or prevent healing, and a series of micro-tears or other injuries would compound the situaton. Quercetin has a similar effect on agiogenesis.

That is from the sci.life-extension discussion group. If resveratrol slows exercise recovery time for tendons and ligaments, it is probably not a good thing for athletes to take. As a rock climber and distance runner, I’ve decided against it.

On another note, a recent study showed that, like resveratrol, endurance exercise can have similar SIRT1 effects! Note also that sweating is a natural iron chelator. The moral of this story is that intense exercise will do you much more good than resveratrol will, and will save you a lot of money too.

Here are some relevant links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resveratrol
• http://www.fightaging.org/archives/001020.php
• http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/28/2315209
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081126122203.htm
• http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2006…
• http://www.rayandterry.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=RESVER

Plasma arc waste disposal, or plasma gasification, is a technology that converts garbage into electricity and other usable resources. It does this, essentially, by disintegrating garbage with super-hot plasma arcs, creating gases that turn turbines to generate electricity.

I wrote about the Trash Gas project in Florida two years ago, and it seems that the story has resurfaced in the mainstream media today. It looks like the Florida project has been scaled down to half of the reported capacity in 2006. Back then, the plant was to eliminate 3000 tons of trash per day, and send 120MW back to the grid. Today’s report is 1500 tons and 60MW, to be ready by 2011.

Meanwhile, here in Canada, Plasco Energy Group setup a somewhat similar plant that has been successfully operating in Ottawa for about a year, and has projects underway for several other cities, including Vancouver and Los Angeles. Several plasma plants are operating in Japan, according to the Wikipedia article on the technology. The article mentions that a couple of plants in Europe were shut down over emissions problems.

The emissions produced by the plant in Ottawa are closely monitored, and so far, the results are quite good. It is my hope that Plasco is successful in their Vancouver and L.A. bids, and that this technology proliferates. As time goes on we will figure out better ways of capturing or converting the emissions. Anyone who has seen the current method of waste disposal — landfill sites — should be on-board with plasma arc plants as well. Dumping garbage on the ground isn’t really “disposal” at all, it’s just moving it to a different place, where some of it rots and produces greenhouse gasses and a vile stench. The rest of it, plastics and the like, simply sit there, polluting the ground water and poisoning wildlife. Plasma gasification isn’t perfect, yet, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.

Resources produced per ton of waste by the Plasco Conversion System

Sunshine Village opened today, after the first winter storm dumped a modest 34cm of fresh snow this week. I’ve been in Banff for almost 6 years now, and this is the first time I’m not there for opening day! I injured myself a couple of weeks ago — impaled by a tree branch — and the doctors insist that skiing right now could lead to further complications. So I’m at home, gazing at the web cams:

Sunshine Village Opening Day '08

Looks like a beautiful, sunny day. Last season was OK, but it didn’t snow nearly as much as previous years, and the avalanche conditions remained treacherous all season, which pretty much ruled out back-country skiing in the Rockies. Delirium Dive didn’t open until the spring. It was no 2006.

My fingers are crossed for this year. The latest avalanche forecast says that we might get more snow this weekend!

A series of storms are lining up off the west coast for the weekend. We will certainly see some more snow and wind but amounts will depend on how far south the storms will track.

I’m stoked. I have some new skis this season, sitting over at the very short-staffed Mountain Magic, waiting for new bindings to be mounted. I’ll be out there as soon as I’m able!

This is an interesting development: hot-tub sized, subterranean nuclear power plants that produce enough electricity to power 20,000 average American homes (25 MWe) for 7 to 10 years, at a cost of $2500 per home. The company building them, Hyperion, says that the “Hyperion Power Module” (HPM) will be mass-produced within 5 years. There is already a back-order for the units.

The company, of course, claims that the nukes are a “clean” energy source because they produce no greenhouse gasses. It may be true that the mini power plants don’t directly release CO₂, but the extraction and enrichment process for nuclear fuel is notorious for it’s heavy carbon footprint. Not to mention all of the energy that goes into the construction and transportation of these things.

In any discussion of nuclear power, the elephant in the room is it’s by-product, radioactive nuclear waste. Possibly the most environmentally destructive thing on Earth. Hyperion claims:

The waste produced after five years of operation is approximately the size of a softball and is a good candidate for fuel recycling.

A healthy dose of skepticism is in order.

All of that aside, however, the HPM would solve a lot of problems around the world today. Five years isn’t very long, considering that many governments are currently investing in environmentally devastating large-scale nuclear power plants that will take 20 heavily-polluting years to build.

Then again, progress towards sustainable clean energy sources such as solar power continues to grow by leaps and bounds. With any luck, the promise of the HPM may stall government plans to build giant nuclear reactors, and in the mean time, sustainable clean energy output catches up.

This NY Times article has summarized the latest physiology research on warm-ups: the age-old practice of static stretching (stretch & hold) before exercising actually does more harm than good. Studies show that static stretching can weaken your pre-workout muscles by up to 30%.

Instead, athletes should do a short aerobic warm up, followed by dynamic stretching, which basically involves doing similar motions that will be involved in your actual work out. For running, do some squats and lunges, for example.

The embedded video on that page is worth watching. In it, manager of sports science for the U.S. Tennis Association Mark Kovacs says that the most important part of the warm up is — surprise — warming up, i.e. getting blood flowing to your muscles by doing a light jog, for example. After that, dynamic movement will further help your muscles warm up and get ready for action. It is also mentioned that static stretching is a good thing to do for cooling down. Damn, I too often skip that part.

An example of dynamic motion that makes for a good warm up is The Spiderman, which involves crawlng on hands & feet, bringing your foot up beside your hand while leaving the other way behind, sort of like a crouching lunge. Thankfully, Duke University’s Sports Medicine people have posted a helpful video on YouTube: