The following links are provided by the Royal BC museum
E-Flora BC (Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia)
This is an excellent native plant database with images, identification guides and distribution maps, hosted by the University of British Columbia. It includes data from specimens at the Royal BC Museum herbarium—a place where dried research specimens are stored and filed according to a system of classification that makes it easy to search for a particular species.
Explore this database hosted by the Conservation Data Centre (CDC) of the BC Ministry of Environment. It is the CDC’s mandate to report on the status of rare species.
Exposure through the skin to the toxic fluorinated chemical once used to make Teflon could pose the same health hazards as ingesting the compound in water or food, according to a new animal study from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH.
The study, which will appear in next month’s issue of the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, examined the effects of the chemical PFOA on the immune systems of mice exposed to high levels of the compound through the skin. The chemical is one of thousands in the family of fluorinated compounds known as PFAS.
NIOSH found that after four days of heavy exposure to PFOS through their skin, rodents’ spleens showed significantly reduced levels of antibodies. The researchers also noted a significant decrease in the weight of the spleen and thymus, indicating PFOA was absorbed through the skin and caused immunosuppressive effects. Studies in humans have shown that exposure to low levels of PFOA, and other PFAS, can harm the immune system of children and adults.
PFOA is one of the most studied compounds of the PFAS family. The chemicals are used to make water-, grease- and stain-repellent coatings for a vast array of consumer goods and industrial applications.
SNOLAB is Canada’s deep underground research laboratory, located in Vale’s Creighton mine near Sudbury, Ontario Canada.
It provides an ideal low background environment for the study of extremely rare physical interactions. SNOLAB’s science program focuses on astroparticle physics, specifically neutrino and dark matter studies, though its unique location is also well-suited to biology and geology experiments. SNOLAB facilitates world-class research, trains highly qualified personnel, and inspires the next generation of scientists.
At 2km, SNOLAB is the deepest cleanest lab in the world. It is an expansion of the facilities constructed for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) solar neutrino experiment and has 5,000 m2 of clean space underground for experiments and supporting infrastructure. A staff of over 100 support the science, providing business processes, engineering design, construction, installation, technical support, and operations. SNOLAB research scientists provide expert and local support to the experiments and undertake research in their own right as members of experimental collaborations.