Vital Nature: Water Monopoly
You’re thirsty. Imagine yourself plucking a dollar from your wallet, slipping it into a machine that slurps it up, and watch a plastic water bottle plop into a cache that …
Articles by Amanda Olson
“Let me decide” campaign
Students may think they are doing themselves a favor by purchasing foods with labels such as “natural,” “healthy” or “whole grain,” what they are getting is far from organic. The …
SoulFood Books review
Quaintly tucked away at the ridge with a patch of stores just off Redmond Way is a café called SoulFood Books. Upon walking into the café, I felt invited and …
Boston Marathon bombing
When the Boston Marathon bombing happened on April 15, 2013, I was contently slurping pho while more than 20 thousand east coast residents revved themselves up for the 26.2 mile …
Farmer’s market comes to BC
BellevueCollege welcomes the fourth annual Farmers’ Market to campus. On Tuesday, April 23, the market will be held in the Courtyard for any intrigued passers-by to check out. The event …
Vital Nature: Algae Power!
The “bioreactor façade” of the BIQ building of Hamburg, Germany is a crusader of its era. A holistic energy course, the building is suited with panels—which are actually thin tanks …
Vital Nature: Vitamin Deficiencies
In a country where “super-sized” meals have become the new standard, and where more than one-third of U.S. adults are clinically obese, it could be astonishing that nutrient deficiencies are …
Review: Chaco Canyon
Stepping into Seattle’s Chaco Canyon preferably with bare feet, either in West Seattle or its original U District location will warm your senses with sights, smells and friendly ambiance. The …
Vital Nature: Bacteriophages
Bacteriophages have been utilized by humanity within agricultural, medical and dietary fields of experimentation and implementation for decades. After recent strikes of rebellion by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, they are reemerging in …
The “Monsanto Protection Act”
It’s spring; plants are giving wing to their seeds, love birds are in the air, people are tilling their gardens and sowing their crops. You might be sneezing more than …
Cures for old problems?
Modern medicine has been making leaps and pursuing feats that may wind up monumental. From a newborn being dosed to successfully “cure” him of HIV within 30 hours of birth, …
Vital Nature: Superbugs
The issue of drug resistance is as old as antibiotics themselves, as it occurs when drugs kill susceptible infections, leaving resilient strains behind. The survivors reproduce and re-infest, and pose …
SESF approves grant for hand dryers
Sustainability advocates from Bellevue College worked to gain Student Environmental Sustainability Fund approval to fund electric hand-dryers on campus. What began as a concern regarding current paper waste and the …
Vital Nature: Pollution, otters and whales
Since the “save the whales” movement popularized and trending onwards from around the ‘70s, a large chunk of environmental attention has been paid to both marine and fresh water creatures. …
Vital Nature: Caffeine and Aspartame
It’s no shock that of today’s non-sugar sweeteners, aspartame claims approximately 50% of all sales by United States consumers. Aspartame is roughly 200 times sweeter than conventional sugar thus providing …
Vital Nature: Recycling potable water
As modern advancements and evolution in technology and engineering rise, the practice of direct water recycling and treatment processes becomes all the more real. Today, water treatment has become increasingly …
“World class innovation”: Solar panels at BC
Bellevue College has made a new environmental feat: the installation of a solar panel array above the art wind of the C building towards the end of January. Deric Gruen, …
Vital Nature: Flouride-infused drinking water
In this modern day and age, we can observe that water fluoridation (dosing the water supply with one of three commonly used fluoride compounds) is a prevalent phenomenon in the …
Vital Nature: Fracking and our food
In the midst of a domestic energy boom, livestock are falling ill in a timely correlation to the surge of hydraulic fracturing, a procedure known as fracking. Scientists have more …
Vital Nature: Climate change and flowers
On our side of the U.S., most of us are cranking up the heat and layering up in response to the frosty outdoors, but for many plants in the eastern …