Serving The Rio Hondo Community
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Huntington Beach Hosts Sausage Festival
Vol.64 Issue 11
Dachshunds Mix and Mingle at Yearly Event
Eva Rivera
News Editor
eva.rivera2331@my.riohondo.edu
T
his year the SoCal Wienerfest welcomed back Dachshunds from all over the country on May 14 at Huntington Beach Dog Beach in Huntington Beach, California for a day full of sun, sniffs and short stacks. SoCal Wienerfest is an event created by founding dachshund lovers Allison Eagan, Dani Moore and Katrina Perez. What started
IVDD is a degenerative disease that affects a dog’s spinal cord and causes a range of painful mobility issues that can lead to full loss of the dog’s hind legs leading to their reliance on a wheel chair or dog cart for the rest of their lives. IVDD survivors were in attendance at Socal Wienerfest to share their stories and
Graphic by Jasmine Soria for El Paisano Media
Researchers have Grown Plants in Gathered Moon Soil
Jonathon Carmona
Science and Tech Editor
jonathon.carmona9046@my.riohondo.edu
Eva Rivera for El Paisano Media
out as a small dachshund meet up in 2014 soon turned into more than 200 people gathering in 2016 to show their love and appreciation for all things dachshunds. The Socal Wienerfest had grown so big that in 2017 it made the move to the Huntington Beach Dog Beach. The ultimate goal of the event is to promote adoptions and foster opportunities for local dogs as well as to spread awareness of the disease Intervertebral Disc Disease (IVDD) that affects up to 25% of dachshunds. According to the article, “DachsLife 2015: an investigation of lifestyle associations with the risk of intervertebral disc disease in Dachshunds,” written by Packer, R.M.A., Seath, I.J., O’Neill, D.G. “Dachshunds are at a 10–12 times higher risk of IVDD than other breeds, and an estimated 19–24 % of Dachshunds show signs of IVDD during their lifetime.”
insight on the disease, they even had the opportunity of racing each other in an IVDD survivor race. SoCal Wienerfest had vendor booths for dog’s and owners to visit along with a schedule of events that ranged from costume contests, races, a “hot dog” hot dog eating contest, a
Eva Rivera for El Paisano Media
lot of dog social interaction and a mini oscar meyer weiner mobile for a memorable photo op. Socal Wienerfest is not only for dachshunds and their owners but is open to all dog breeds for some fun in the sun.
A
new breakthrough in space survival is upon humankind. One that could possibly affect the way we travel through space for years to come. For the first time in human history, scientists have successfully sprouted plants using soil from the Moon. Described in a research paper published in the journal Communications Biology, scientists from the University of Florida displayed that it is possible to grow plants in lunar soil. The Moon’s soil is also known as lunar regolith. Lunar regolith and Earth’s soil are vastly different. In addition to growing the plants, the study also focused on how the plants responded biologically for the lunar regolith. The hope is that the research leads toward growing crops and plants for oxygen on the Moon. The researchers experimented by first planting seeds in the lunar soil. They then added water, nutrients, and light and recorded the results. The only problem was, they only had 12
grams of lunar soil to work with. Twelve grams would be equivalent to just a couple of teaspoons but the scientists were grateful. The lunar soil was loaned to them by NASA. The researchers had to apply to get the lunar regolith three times. The soil was collected during the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions that went to the Moon. The experiment consisted of utilizing the limited soil as much as they could. They used “thimble-sized” wells and laid those onto plastic plates that are usually used for cell research. Each well worked as a pot and was filled with a gram of lunar soil. The scientists then moistened the soil with a nutritional solution. The seeds that were planted are from the Arabidopsis plant. The reason scientists use this plant is because its genetic code has been completely mapped. Having the plant’s genetic code being mapped allows this insight to go down to the level of gene expression. This allows the scientists to see how the soil affects the plants on the genetic level, adding to the care of each future plant. For sake of comparison,
the researchers also planted Arabidopsis in other soils. These soils were JSC-1A, which is a terrestrial substance that mimics real lunar soil, simulated Martian soils, and extreme environment terrestrial soils. These plants were considered the control group. Nearly all of the wells filled with lunar soil sprouted, much to the surprise of the scientists. However, the plants all grew differently with ones in lunar soil differing from the ones in the control group. Some of the plants in the lunar soil took longer to grow, grew smaller, or had more variety in size than those in the control group. This all meant that the plants were compromising and working extra to grow in the Moon’s soil. The plants saw the lunar regolith as stressful as the gene expressions told scientists. The plants began to release salt and metals, according to the researchers. These are techniques plants use to deal with stressful environments. The plants were working hard to show the researchers life. They hope to use this data as a way to help future lunar crops flourish smoothly. Of course, more studies are to be done.