A shoutout to the brainiacs

May 8—I'm a big fan of researchers, scientists and doctors.

Polio ravaged humanity many times throughout history, most recently in 1952 when 58,000 cases occurred in the United States, and more than 3,000 deaths. But in early 1953, medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk successfully created a vaccine. While there were still some 350,000 cases around the world in the 1980s, expansion of the vaccine program has virtually eliminated polio.

Ditto for countless other diseases and viruses, including our planet's recent nightmare with COVID-19 that was controlled with scientific know-how.

Beyond the old and new life-and-death diseases that smart people are working to end, or at least make tolerable, there are a growing number of new threats to our landscape, waters and native animals from exotic and invasive species.

Government agencies rightly work to do what they can slow the spread, but there is really no stopping them from coming in.

The emerald ash borer is one of the latest and most dramatic unwanted transplants. The natives of Asia arrived in the wood of shipping pallets and have already killed tens of millions of ash trees. There are some expensive and time-consuming ways to protect some prized trees, but the end of most of the 8 billion ash trees in the U.S. looks inevitable.

And there are plenty of invasive species that are not exotic but are native to our landscape. Sumac is native here but a highly invasive shrub that can overwhelm a landscape.

The list of new weeds that invade our farm fields, gardens and landscapes keeps growing. One of the most disturbing is something called Palmer amaranth, a giant and aggressive monster that has found its way into Minnesota from the Deep South. It grows 2-3 inches per day, reaches heights of 6 to 8 feet and has a big woody stem. It's also shown the ability to quickly create traits resistant to herbicides.

Some defenses against invasive plants backfire. A weevil released to attack a weed veered off target and started gobbling up a native plant in Nebraska. A fly that was supposed to kill invasive moths is wiping out native moths in New England. And an insect introduced to combat a pesky weed led to a spike in the population of mice carrying a potentially deadly virus in Montana.

Some promising experiments are still in the experimental stage. Recently states have been releasing genetically modified mosquitoes with the hope they replace the mosquitoes that spread deadly diseases such as yellow fever and dengue. Many worry the plan could backfire.

Many threats require new drugs and genetic alterations, but there are fewer risks with some approaches scientists come up with.

Carp have long raised havoc, destroying our lakes and streams. In a creek infested with carp in New Brighton, scientists recently installed a low-voltage electric guidance system that funnels the carp to underwater cages where a conveyer belt removes them from the water. So far it's working well.

In Rochester, local officials have finally gotten ahead of a longtime problem of an out-of-control Canada goose population that left local parks and beaches largely unusable due to goose droppings. The fairly simple approach: Swap out the eggs in goose nests with ceramic eggs.

Scientists and researchers don't always get it right, at least right away. There are sometimes unexpected consequences and side effects from any drug, bug, herbicide or other strategy developed to combat a threat.

But all of those people laboring away in laboratories and research stations are too often disparaged by some in the public, including political leaders who should know better.

As the globe has become more interconnected and problems once isolated can spread everywhere, we're going to need more and more of those brainy folks in lab coats.

Tim Krohn can be contacted at tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com or 507-720-1300.