[Music]
before I get started I want everybody to
take a deep breath of air feeling a
little relaxed a little more relaxed
I’ll tell you a little bit about that
air you just took a breath of in a
moment but let me first get started by
telling you about a recent National
Academy of Engineering report that came
out with Grand Challenges for
engineering in the 21st century
basically a to-do list for all of
humanity
focusing on issues like personalized
medicine sustainable energy and access
to clean water now we know that there
are so many Grand Challenges for us to
overtake on and this particular report
listed 14 of these challenges and they
all make sense for example if we think
about the clean water access to clean
water how many people know about
Hurricane Maria okay
did you read the newspaper today what is
the greatest manatorian need for our
citizens in Puerto Rico clean water
getting bottled water to our citizens in
Puerto Rico so the Grand Challenge list
all fourteen of them makes sense but I
would like to add a 15th to the list and
that is keeping our air clean because if
you think about it for a moment
you can go days without drinking water
but you can only go minutes without
breathing air so I posed the question
here what is in the air we breathe well
there are gases such as oxygen nitrogen
carbon dioxide water vapor as well as
other gases of much lower concentrations
nitrogen oxides sulfur oxides and
formaldehyde to name a few but there are
also tiny particles called aerosols in
our air how many people know about
aerosol
it’s not just spray can that you used to
but instead any solid or liquid particle
suspended in air now scientists has been
interested in aerosols for quite some
time because they’re fascinating they
impact climate and they impact human
health as well as our atmosphere in ways
we’re just starting to understand so
there’s some things I want to tell you
about aerosols today first they come
from many different sources
volcanoes soot from car exhaust fly ash
from industrial missions deserts
wildfires like we have in Northern
California and even oceans so let’s
think about what happens when we walk
along the ocean along the beach and
before I do that I want to tell you a
few other things about aerosols they’re
small very small smaller than the width
of a hair a thousand times smaller than
the width of a hair they have different
physical and chemical properties and
some of them are biological in nature
viruses and microbes and so just think
about walking along the ocean walking
along the beach breathing in that air
thinking about family thinking about
friends and you think well this is
really nice right I’m breathing in salt
air everything is good but there are
things in that water microbes and and
phytoplankton and enzymes and bacteria
and they to get into the air that you
breathe let’s think about what happens
when there’s a contaminant spill has
anybody seen science go up along the
beach that say do not go into the water
right don’t go in the water don’t swim
in the water now that’s a pretty easy
directive to follow what do you do you
don’t go in the water
right pretty easy directive to follow
most people you can actually see some
people back there in the water but I
think about something else I think about
the air and I want to put up a different
sign I want to put up the sign that says
don’t breathe the air because when that
contaminant still happens oil spill
sewage spill that can get into the air
that can get into sea spray aerosol and
get into the air you breathe that is
something to think about I want to tell
you something else about aerosols they
like to travel how many of you like to
travel Europe Asia Africa South America
Australia will they like to travel too
so let’s think about what happens when
there’s a dust storm in Asia okay now
dust is something that’s particularly
interesting to me because in some
circles I’m known as the dust queen for
my work on mineral dust in the
atmosphere so what happens when there’s
a dust storm in Asia well on day one
high winds arid region dust gets lofted
into the air and starts to travel making
its way to the Pacific Ocean two to four
days later approximately and three days
after that here on the west coast of the
United States and so the air you’re
breathing now could contain dust aerosol
from Asia that originated one week
earlier so what I like to say is what
happens in Asia doesn’t stay in Asia
but also what happens here in the US
doesn’t stay in the US and we to export
aerosols to other countries to other
continents now I get a lot of calls from
people asking me about the air we
breathe asking me about aerosols a
farmer in Iowa wants to know if that
industrial plant being built down the
road with fly ash emissions from that
industrial plant impacts his crops could
it coat his soybean fields his farm his
corn fields these fields he worked so
hard to maintain a woman from the
daycare wants to know if nanoparticles
in the paint that she used to coat the
walls or her her daycare could they get
loose and get into the air and the
nanoparticle their nanoparticles are
there because you can more easily clean
the walls but could they get loose and
could they get into the air so people
want to know about aerosols can it
affect my me from a financial
perspective or from a health perspective
and so let’s let’s talk about health for
a moment okay we’ve known for some time
aerosols can impact our lungs our
pulmonary system and people with asthma
and COPD are most affected my own
daughter has asthma and I’ve seen her
having difficulties breathing and that’s
really hard to watch and a lot of you
parents out there might also have kids
with asthma so exposure to aerosols can
cause respiratory problems it can cause
a hard time breathing also the heart
okay there’s been a correlation between
aerosols and cardiovascular health so
the heart is affected but what I’m here
to tell you today is that a brand new
study has come out that has shown a
correlation between pollution aerosols
and dementia and older women so now
we’re saying these aerosols can impact
our brain health
and I will tell you I was totally
surprised by that study and I would say
that’s something for all of us to really
think about now that all sounds like bad
news I’m sorry I had to bring you some
bad news but what I would say is that in
my own lab working with students I have
a group of like 20 students we’re trying
to figure out what are the
characteristics of aerosols that impact
health what are the characteristics that
impact climates working together we are
trying to really understand aerosols and
this is our this is our future this is
our next generation of scientists who
want to work on these important topics
we also work in my laboratories located
on the University of California San
Diego campus we also work with a center
on that campus called case we’re not
only do we do research but we also do
education we empower people to make
environmental measurements to make
measurements of aerosols schoolchildren
can make measurements of aerosols and so
what I would say is that working
together we can do so much and what I
mean by that is why can’t we have the
public make environmental measurements
have something an app on your cell phone
being able to report it out to a larger
network we measure rainfall we report
that out to local weather forecasters
why can’t we report that out nationally
in a national network environmental
measurements being made by people like
people like you and so what I would say
is that I’m fascinated with aerosols
from a scientific perspective from a
public perspective and and I want to
know more from a public perspective I
think it’s imperative that you know more
okay so working together ok scientists
citizens this is time for us to think
about these kinds of problems more
rather than less and I think working
together we can do so much more so if
it’s why listening to every breath you
take or dust in the wind let’s all take
a deep breath and think about the air we
breathe
you
before I get started I want everybody to
take a deep breath of air feeling a
little relaxed a little more relaxed
I’ll tell you a little bit about that
air you just took a breath of in a
moment but let me first get started by
telling you about a recent National
Academy of Engineering report that came
out with Grand Challenges for
engineering in the 21st century
basically a to-do list for all of
humanity
focusing on issues like personalized
medicine sustainable energy and access
to clean water now we know that there
are so many Grand Challenges for us to
overtake on and this particular report
listed 14 of these challenges and they
all make sense for example if we think
about the clean water access to clean
water how many people know about
Hurricane Maria okay
did you read the newspaper today what is
the greatest manatorian need for our
citizens in Puerto Rico clean water
getting bottled water to our citizens in
Puerto Rico so the Grand Challenge list
all fourteen of them makes sense but I
would like to add a 15th to the list and
that is keeping our air clean because if
you think about it for a moment
you can go days without drinking water
but you can only go minutes without
breathing air so I posed the question
here what is in the air we breathe well
there are gases such as oxygen nitrogen
carbon dioxide water vapor as well as
other gases of much lower concentrations
nitrogen oxides sulfur oxides and
formaldehyde to name a few but there are
also tiny particles called aerosols in
our air how many people know about
aerosol
it’s not just spray can that you used to
but instead any solid or liquid particle
suspended in air now scientists has been
interested in aerosols for quite some
time because they’re fascinating they
impact climate and they impact human
health as well as our atmosphere in ways
we’re just starting to understand so
there’s some things I want to tell you
about aerosols today first they come
from many different sources
volcanoes soot from car exhaust fly ash
from industrial missions deserts
wildfires like we have in Northern
California and even oceans so let’s
think about what happens when we walk
along the ocean along the beach and
before I do that I want to tell you a
few other things about aerosols they’re
small very small smaller than the width
of a hair a thousand times smaller than
the width of a hair they have different
physical and chemical properties and
some of them are biological in nature
viruses and microbes and so just think
about walking along the ocean walking
along the beach breathing in that air
thinking about family thinking about
friends and you think well this is
really nice right I’m breathing in salt
air everything is good but there are
things in that water microbes and and
phytoplankton and enzymes and bacteria
and they to get into the air that you
breathe let’s think about what happens
when there’s a contaminant spill has
anybody seen science go up along the
beach that say do not go into the water
right don’t go in the water don’t swim
in the water now that’s a pretty easy
directive to follow what do you do you
don’t go in the water
right pretty easy directive to follow
most people you can actually see some
people back there in the water but I
think about something else I think about
the air and I want to put up a different
sign I want to put up the sign that says
don’t breathe the air because when that
contaminant still happens oil spill
sewage spill that can get into the air
that can get into sea spray aerosol and
get into the air you breathe that is
something to think about I want to tell
you something else about aerosols they
like to travel how many of you like to
travel Europe Asia Africa South America
Australia will they like to travel too
so let’s think about what happens when
there’s a dust storm in Asia okay now
dust is something that’s particularly
interesting to me because in some
circles I’m known as the dust queen for
my work on mineral dust in the
atmosphere so what happens when there’s
a dust storm in Asia well on day one
high winds arid region dust gets lofted
into the air and starts to travel making
its way to the Pacific Ocean two to four
days later approximately and three days
after that here on the west coast of the
United States and so the air you’re
breathing now could contain dust aerosol
from Asia that originated one week
earlier so what I like to say is what
happens in Asia doesn’t stay in Asia
but also what happens here in the US
doesn’t stay in the US and we to export
aerosols to other countries to other
continents now I get a lot of calls from
people asking me about the air we
breathe asking me about aerosols a
farmer in Iowa wants to know if that
industrial plant being built down the
road with fly ash emissions from that
industrial plant impacts his crops could
it coat his soybean fields his farm his
corn fields these fields he worked so
hard to maintain a woman from the
daycare wants to know if nanoparticles
in the paint that she used to coat the
walls or her her daycare could they get
loose and get into the air and the
nanoparticle their nanoparticles are
there because you can more easily clean
the walls but could they get loose and
could they get into the air so people
want to know about aerosols can it
affect my me from a financial
perspective or from a health perspective
and so let’s let’s talk about health for
a moment okay we’ve known for some time
aerosols can impact our lungs our
pulmonary system and people with asthma
and COPD are most affected my own
daughter has asthma and I’ve seen her
having difficulties breathing and that’s
really hard to watch and a lot of you
parents out there might also have kids
with asthma so exposure to aerosols can
cause respiratory problems it can cause
a hard time breathing also the heart
okay there’s been a correlation between
aerosols and cardiovascular health so
the heart is affected but what I’m here
to tell you today is that a brand new
study has come out that has shown a
correlation between pollution aerosols
and dementia and older women so now
we’re saying these aerosols can impact
our brain health
and I will tell you I was totally
surprised by that study and I would say
that’s something for all of us to really
think about now that all sounds like bad
news I’m sorry I had to bring you some
bad news but what I would say is that in
my own lab working with students I have
a group of like 20 students we’re trying
to figure out what are the
characteristics of aerosols that impact
health what are the characteristics that
impact climates working together we are
trying to really understand aerosols and
this is our this is our future this is
our next generation of scientists who
want to work on these important topics
we also work in my laboratories located
on the University of California San
Diego campus we also work with a center
on that campus called case we’re not
only do we do research but we also do
education we empower people to make
environmental measurements to make
measurements of aerosols schoolchildren
can make measurements of aerosols and so
what I would say is that working
together we can do so much and what I
mean by that is why can’t we have the
public make environmental measurements
have something an app on your cell phone
being able to report it out to a larger
network we measure rainfall we report
that out to local weather forecasters
why can’t we report that out nationally
in a national network environmental
measurements being made by people like
people like you and so what I would say
is that I’m fascinated with aerosols
from a scientific perspective from a
public perspective and and I want to
know more from a public perspective I
think it’s imperative that you know more
okay so working together ok scientists
citizens this is time for us to think
about these kinds of problems more
rather than less and I think working
together we can do so much more so if
it’s why listening to every breath you
take or dust in the wind let’s all take
a deep breath and think about the air we
breathe
you
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