toad 77.toa.1 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Remember the doomed, cane-toad-eating crocodiles? Well they’re still eating, and dying: A new report suggests that as much as 77 percent of the crocodile population along the Victoria River has now perished from toad poisoning. http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com

In yet another example of the “solution to one problem becomes an even bigger problem” doctrine, cane toads were purposely introduced to the region as a pest-control measure for beetles in the sugar cane fields. But sure enough, the toads soon became pests themselves, to the point where volunteer groups are trying to stop the toads’ spread across the continent. http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com


One community has been promoting “cane toad golf”—basically whacking the toads with golf clubs. A more humane way, experts suggest, is to put the toads in the fridge until they’re numb and then transfer them to the freezer to kill them.

The toads are especially afraid of the cold and pretty much stop moving below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Though, of course, would you really want one of these warty things in your fridge? Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

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Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Treatments for anxiety disorders often center on drugs that relieve symptoms but can be addictive and cause drowsiness and other side effects. These medications work on brain-cell receptors for either of two chemical messengers, GABA or serotonin.http://louis-j-sheehan.net

A new study has taken the first steps toward identifying drugs that may pack a more effective anxiety-fighting punch. Mice bred to lack the gene for an enzyme called protein kinase C epsilon (PKCe) display far more calmness and curiosity in stressful situations than do mice who possess the gene, according to a research team led by neuroscientist Robert O. Messing of the University of California, San Francisco.http://louis-j-sheehan.net

The scientists theorize that the absence of PKCe enhances the sensitivity of GABA receptors to a class of messengers known as neurosteroids. This boosts GABA's effectiveness at slowing down communication among neurons. Depletion of GABA has been linked to anxiety disorders.http://louis-j-sheehan.net

Improved anxiety treatments may emerge if researchers develop medications that indirectly boost GABA's influence by thwarting PKCe, Messing's team concludes in the October Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"Our strategy is to see if we can influence GABA-receptor function through a [biochemical] side door that leads to the discovery of anti-anxiety medications with fewer side effects," says study coauthor Clyde W. Hodge of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.http://louis-j-sheehan.net

In 1999, the scientists first studied so-called knockout mice missing a gene for PKCe. Compared with mice carrying the gene, the knockout animals displayed blunted withdrawal symptoms after regular alcohol consumption and were less likely to drink alcohol again if given the opportunity.

In the new study, Messing's team turned up evidence that a GABA-mediated decline in anxiety may represent the fundamental attribute of these knockout mice. http://louis-j-sheehan.net Mice lacking the gene PKCe showed few signs of fearfulness and a greater willingness to explore unfamiliar mazes�including one with unprotected pathways raised almost 2 feet off the floor�than did mice possessing the gene. PKCe-deprived mice also had lower blood concentrations of two stress hormones.

Moreover, injections of a substance that obstructs GABA-receptor activity rendered knockout mice as fearful and cautious in novel mazes as animals with intact PKCe genes were. Injections of the same substance had no effect on anxiety in the normal mice.

In contrast, injections of a druglike neurosteroid yielded more dramatic anxiety-related effects�including coordination-impairing drowsiness�in mice lacking PKCe than in normal mice.http://louis-j-sheehan.net

The finding that PKCe deficiency in mice diminishes anxiety offers a promising lead in the search for improved drug treatments, comments neuroscientist Joshua A. Gordon of Columbia University.

Researchers now need to identify precise ways in which PKCe, as well as various neurosteroids, modifies GABA receptors, Gordon says. At the same time, Hodge says, to preempt potential side effects, it will be important to discern whether PKCe affects the heart and other organs.

claims 882.cla.1 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

The deepwater submersibles Mir 1 and Mir 2 (eponymous with the deorbited Russian space station and meaning "peace" or "world") were aptly named—their deployment would stand on par with a space mission in complexity and they certainly caught the "world's" attention. As a nuclear-powered icebreaker crunched through 10 feet (three meters) of August ice at the North Pole, Russian sailors readied the subs for their 2.5-mile (four-kilometer) descent. A hole opened in the ship's wake, and the subs were lowered. At the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, one sub took ground samples, the ostensible purpose of the mission, while the other deposited a titanium capsule containing a Russian flag.

Moscow's 2007 stunt was widely mocked for its ostentatious flouting of diplomatic etiquette but had its intended effect: Other countries were rattled. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper scurried to the Arctic for a sovereignty tour and the Danish science minister released preliminary findings that the North Pole was, in fact, Danish.

Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Roughly 30 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas lurk beneath the melting ice of the Arctic Ocean, and the coastal nations are eager to start drawing lines on the ocean floor. Although three fifths of the world's other three oceans remain high seas, the Arctic will likely hold onto only two small basins designated as the common heritage of humankind. The rest will be parceled off to Norway, Denmark, Russia, Canada and the U.S.—and they're all looking to get rich.

The rules for seabed resource claims stem from the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which allows a 230-mile (370-kilometer) exclusive economic zone off a nation's coast from the low-tide mark. There is one exception: If a continental shelf juts beyond the 200-mile limit, a country's resource claim may be extended. If such a claim is made, a selection of geologists, geophysicists and hydrographers form a committee to evaluate scientific evidence for a nation's elongated shelf.

International treaties, steeped in precedent, do not always mesh with cutting-edge research. Newly returned from riding along on the U.S. Coast Guard's Healy icebreaker as it surveyed the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska, Vermont Law School professor Betsy Baker reports a failure of science and law to communicate. "There are a number of terms in the law that are scientifically ambiguous," she says. "How do you define a 'natural prolongation'? And where is the 'foot of a slope'?" In the Arctic, unusually broad shelves and long submarine peninsulas complicate the issue.

"You can read these phrases in different ways, but inside Denmark and Greenland there is good agreement on the resulting formulas," says Flemming Christiansen, technical director of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. "The commission is looking into claims now from Australia and New Zealand, so their rulings should soon clarify the matter." Most of the 150 convention signatories have a 2009 deadline to make their claims and as many as 50 coastal states could bid for an extension into their neighboring waters.

Out of the five coastal Arctic nations, only the U.S. has never ratified UNCLOS, so it will not be submitting any data to the committee. "A small number of senators resist ceding any sovereignty, afraid the big, bad U.N. is going to divvy up Arctic resources," Baker says. "The irony is, UNCLOS is not a U.N.-run operation."

No one is likely to start investing in expensive resource exploration and extraction if they could be evicted by an international ruling, so the outer shelves will not see development for another 30 years or so, says Baker. The challenges of drilling at three-mile (five-kilometer) depths should not be underestimated either, because existing platforms cannot be used. The ocean floor will have to house recovery complexes and the hydrocarbons may have to be transported to land via pipeline. On an ever-shifting ice pack, only the strongest reinforced rigs or drill ships can survive, and should a spill occur, cleanup would be almost impossible.

There is unexplored oil on the order of 90 billion barrels and 1.67 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report, but most of the natural gas lies in the Arctic Ocean closest to Russia. The U.K.-based oil company, BP, PLC, has signed a $17-billion exploration deal with Russia in the hopes of replacing the declining output of its current fields in the North Sea.

Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Norway's state-owned Statoil has cold-weather expertise with which it hopes to exploit deposits in the Barents Sea, and Canada-based Imperial Oil is among a handful of companies bidding on Canadian claims in the Beaufort Sea. "Seismic will help us determine where we might want to drill, but ultimately we won't know if we've picked the wrong place until we've actually created a well," says Glen McCrimmon, Imperial's geoscience manager for the area. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Aside from already valuable commodities like oil and natural gas, the world's next alternative energy source may lie trapped in the Arctic ice itself. Gas hydrates—a mixture of ice and methane—are found only in high-pressure and cold temperatures. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation has bankrolled much of the research into depressurizing deposits a mile under the ocean surface. "People realized, 'Holy cow, this stuff starts bubbling and fizzing when you get it on deck. It's actually flammable. What the heck is it?'" says David Scott, manager of the Northern Resources Development Program for Natural Resources Canada. Gas hydrates are expected to make up a significant portion of the energy mix once existing oil fields dwindle, Scott says.

Even with the best geophysical data, there will still be political questions. The largest feature that demands negotiating is the Lomonosov Ridge, which transects the Arctic Ocean, extending 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) from Siberia to Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island. "It is possible that the Lomonosov Ridge is attached to all three," says Jorn Skov Nielsen, deputy minister of minerals and petroleum for the Greenland Home Rule Government. "Our geological investigation may find that the North Pole area is part of Greenland's shelf."

claims 882.cla.1 . Lomonosov was likely a slice of the Siberian shelf that broke off northward during the Cenozoic era when the Eurasian Basin opened up on the Arctic Ocean floor, but its current ties to Russia are disputed. Russia, Canada and Denmark may all end up claiming the ridge—and the rich resources connected to it.

"It's hard to imagine the ridge is continuous for such a long distance," contends Benoit Beauchamp, director of the Arctic Institute of North America in Calgary, Alberta. "But it's not rocket science to find out. Just expensive and hard to access under the ice." claims 882.cla.1