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Tara C. Smith is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology. Her research involves a number of pathogens at the animal-human nexus. She also writes for The Panda's Thumb and previously for WIRED SCIENCE's Correlations. Please note the views expressed on this site are Dr. Smith's alone and may not be representative of the groups mentioned above.
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Category: Iowa/area news • Misc.
Posted on: April 20, 2006 2:20 PM, by Tara C. Smith
So, it was a gorgeous afternoon yesterday. I picked up the kids, grabbed my laptop, and was planning on doing some writing outside while they played until dinnertime.
Curses, foiled again.
That would be anhydrous ammonia, across the road from our house. Not exactly fun to be outside when they're putting that on the field; the smell is so strong it was literally making me tear up while I put away the kids' bikes.
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Comments
Ahhhhhhhhhh....the smells of Spring on the farm. Once drove by a farmer spreading fresh chicken poop on his fields. I said to the other occupants in the car..."I wonder what he's spreading?"...but before I got to the 'he' the smell hit us and literally took my breath away.
Posted by: Dave S. | April 20, 2006 2:35 PM
Yeah, I grew up down wind from a large pig farm, so manure doesn't really faze me. (Although chicken shit is pretty acrid).
Posted by: Tara C. Smith | April 20, 2006 2:44 PM
My Grandfather used to say, "Ahhh, smells like money."
Posted by: Tim Murtaugh | April 20, 2006 2:47 PM
Tim, and I grew up in farm country cleaning both hog and poultry raising buildings with a scoop shovel and it never not once smelled like money to me though I've heard the statement a variation of sonic booms being the sound of freedom.Still I'd trade the smell of good honest organic fertilizer for the literally breath taking odor of anhydrous ammonia any day and I suspect the good honest organic stuff has fewer deleterious effects on the groundwater in areas where it is more prevalent than does the gas.
Posted by: donquixote'shorse | April 20, 2006 3:20 PM
My littel 4 year old sister was with me in the car one day when we passed a particularly fruity farmyard
"ah! - Fresh Country Air!" she said, taking a deep breath - and without a hint of irony.
She has grown up to have the dryest sense of humour of anyone I know.
Posted by: Dean Morrison | April 20, 2006 3:45 PM
Don't know if you saw this, but Science Friday did a great segment on Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma", on how most of the carbon in our body comes from corn. He points out that only reason we can get such high production of corn now is by the use of chemical nitrogen fertilizer.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2006/Apr/hour2_041406.html
Posted by: Brian Haugen | April 20, 2006 3:47 PM
I thought napalm in the morning smelled like freedom.
Yeah, and once that ammonia comes out into the air, it ain't anhydrous no more.
I've worked with the stuff many times. Once it hit me right in the face. Lord, I though my eyes were melting.
I can't believe they can legally just spray it into the air.
Posted by: Jason | April 20, 2006 5:33 PM
When driving by an oil refinery with my uncle, who was a chemical engineer in the oil refining industry, would say something like "What a waste. I could sell that stink."
In this case, one could say it's a foul smell, if one wanted to.
Just a few seconds ago, i finished listening to the Science Friday podcast. He also mentions E.coli 0157H7 as an infectous disease aided by feeding cows with feed corn (22:50 into the show). I'd never heard of it. Google has. But Google knows all about how we landed on the moon, and how we didn't. Any thoughts?
Posted by: Stephen Uitti | April 21, 2006 1:10 PM
Any thoughts on E. coli O157:H7, or on feed corn + cows + E. coli? And which show--do you have a link to the podcast? I'm actually doing a study looking at cows and E. coli, so that sounds like it's right up my alley.
Posted by: Tara C. Smith | April 21, 2006 1:19 PM
Now you know why your lawn is so green. I wonder is there enough to have a noticeable effect? On your plants, that is, not your eyes.
When they spray pesticides or herbicides, somewhere in the fringes of the application zone (your lot?) will be a swath that has the maximum evolution rate for resistance.
Not good whether we are talking weeds, insects or kids.
Posted by: JohnnieCanuck | April 22, 2006 8:30 PM