Hello everyone!
Well, Canada is approaching two weeks since COVID-19 shutdown universities, schools and in person exams. Since then, the Canadian government has implemented new policies and regulations to control the spread, including closing down all non-essential businesses, preventing gathering of 5 or more outside of homes (although NO ONE should be gathering unless it is with people you are living with everyday (i.e. family or roommates that are not able to go home), non-essential travel outside of Canada (although I think it is being restricted further), can no longer purchase more than two of certain items in the grocery store, and pleading to people to please tied up their rubbish (garbage) bags when putting them on the side of the road for pick-up. Outside of Canada, we have seen the new of new cases in China begin to approach zero, the UK has now begun a 3 week lock down due to their spike in deaths (would have been avoided if people did not cramp themselves on the tube), and the USA has surpassed China in the number of total cases! If you want to keep updated with COVID-19 news and want reliable statistics that is not poorly explained or over/under-exaggerated by non-scientists and people who are not in the medical profession, go to OurWorldInData. It is very informative site where you can keep up with COVID-19 research and statistical reports. I have started to be more accepting of the situation and the risks of the virus. What I have not been able to accept lately is how people are responding and listening to the governments, researchers and doctors advice to contain the virus and curve the spread.
Enough is Enough! Please Don't Ignore Physical Distancing and Respect Essential Workers
Just last night on the CTV London news, a man and woman were caught removing hazard tape off of a playground. The hazard tape was put up to stop parents from letting their kids play and potentially catch and spread the virus. When confronted by the man videoing the whole scene, the guys response was simply "I am a free man, no one is sick the area so they don't need to be up". The woman with him agreed. As soon as the man holding video asked "well what if someone has it, does not show symptoms, and brings it to the park?". The man and the woman with the hazard tape simply walked away. I think they knew they had no logical response. This is just the recent news on the ignorance of some people during this COVID-19 situation. They assume it will go away over night or in the next two weeks. I hate to break it to them, but that is not how virus pandemics work. It is not a thunderstorm bringing gale force winds and heavy downpour, it is something that can hang around for months, especially if people like this go around acting like nothing is wrong and endangering other people. I really drives me up the wall! Going back a week, where I read the news about how people in Florida ignored warning from across the world saying that the virus spreads easily at large gathering. Instead of heeding the warnings, hundreds of people went to the beach to celebrate spring break. I admit, the social distancing rule in the states was not properly communicated and explained. However, people should have more sense. I understand we are a social species and following a warning saying to not hang out with friends is difficult, but by ignoring it you are putting yourself and them at risk. I hope this is a huge lesson to everyone. Please stay at home and only leave if you HAVE to buy supplies. Do not go to the store for the sake of it. That does not help you or anyone else, it just makes this harder to contain.
Another note, please be respectful to the employees at grocery stores, pharmacies, hospitals and medical centers. They are putting themselves on the front line to ensure you have food, water and health care. At hospitals and medical centers, please be patient with staff. They are having to work long hours and deal with cases, including ones not related to COVID-19. Pharmacists are trying to ensure you have access to medications and cold/flu medicine to help you if you feel ill. At grocery stores, please follow the physical distancing rules they have set up. Don't accuse them of hiding products just because the shelf is empty. They do not know when shipments will arrive everyday, they do not have a secret hidden room with extra supplies, they do not appreciate people acting entitled and saying they are not doing enough to help. Remember, they do not have to work. They could just stay at home like everyone else during this but they are not. They are working hard to ensure you have food and water. My gf, her mum and brother work at Loblaws and it really makes me mad when they are still saying people are being inconsiderate, not being patient with the physical distancing and max number of customers in the store, and the delays in orders. You are lucky they are working through this to begin with so please be nice!
Research Update
On a more cheerful note, I have started to get back into work. On the 30th of March, I will be pushing myself back into full gear! I have currently written a draft outline for my research paper on constraining the temperature of the Mistastin Lake Impact Structure melt deposits. If you have read my posts about my trip to the Johnson Space Center in February, I am studying the orientation of crystal planes in zircon grains that experiences superheated temperatures above 1700 °C. Using an incident electron beam, I was able to crater Euler maps, which are xyz angle maps of the different crystal orientations in each zircon grain. This allowed me to study the different orientations and figure out which grains show evidence of once being superheated by melt created during the impact event. I am wanting to see if I can understand the temperature conditions of impact melt when it is first formed. The process is instantaneous when a meteorite or come impacts a surface so other than impact experiments and computational modelling, this is the only other way to understand impact melt temperatures. My paper will be discussing the results I collected from the Johnson Space Center. I plan to talk about how heterogeneous the morphology and orientations of the zircon grains are throughout the Mistastin impact structure. It will prove how complicated the production of impact melt is and it can improve computational models used to understand how high frequency impact events have affected planetary surfaces in the past, including Earth 4.0 billion years ago.
Gavin's Baking/Cooking Evolution
I mentioned this on twitter and I have decided to release photos of new recipes I have cooked or baked every week. I originally wanted to make this a weekly thing but I usually make more than one dish a week, so you guys we see my favourite one on the blog. The others I will be posting on my Instagram account @gavin4science_94
This week, I made something using a classic two-flavour combination. I made peanut butter and jam flapjacks (or oat bars for those North Americans). I used a recipe from BBC Good Food. It was easy and cheap to make. You only need rolled oats, peanut butter and strawberry or raspberry jam, salted butter, and brown sugar.
I highly recommend trying this. It will be a great sweet treat after doing a couple hours of studying, marking or feeling down during self-isolation and working from home :)
Until next time, stay home, stay safe, and stay healthy!