From Silent Spring to Silent Night: a Review

Dr. Tyrone Hayes, a biologist from the University of Cal-Berkeley studied frogs and performed numerous experiments and studies based on the makeup of these frogs. He hypothesized that since frogs don’t have sex chromosomes like the common mammal, their gender was based on the magnitude of multiple hormones within them. Eventually, he wound up patenting this frog, the Xenopus laevis, because of what he found. The results of his studies on the frogs showed that every frog underwent color change from estrogenal compounds. These same estrogenal compounds that forced the frog to undergo color change (and therefore make it female) was found to promote breast cancer in humans. As a result, if one wanted to determine if a particular sample of water could cause breast cancer, all they had to do was subject the frogs to it and if it changed color, it could promote breast cancer. However, what also was found in these studies was that the color change (and subsequently, the treatment of breast cancer) could be blocked with a particular compound). Hayes conducted further studies on the chemical Atrazine, the leading agrochemical in the United States. Atrazine activates an enzyme called Aromatase that converts testosterone to estrogen. Atrazine was found to demasculinize the frogs and feminize them. Also, although mixed with other chemicals and pesticides, Atrazine was found in the water in Salinas, CA and other major parts of CA where the majority of America’s food supply is grown. These chemicals have taken a huge toll on the frogs there either killing or paralyzing a majority of them. This was exemplified in the writing of Steinbeck. “From Silent Spring to Silent Night.” Also found in Hayes research was a decrease in testosterone across all vertebrate classes; not just in frogs. These chemicals, primarily Atrazine, showed a major correlation in regards to prostate, breast, and other major forms of cancer in the United States. Lastly, Hayes concluded, based on experiments of...