Have a burning question about Rio Rancho and Sandoval County or anything else for that matter? Send us your queries and in The Observer's Glad You Asked column, we'll do our best to answer them.

Q: What is HPV, the HPV vaccine and why is the vaccine only for girls?

A: A ranter in a recent issue wanted to know why the HPV vaccine wasn't available for boys. This information comes courtesy of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). First, HPV is a sexually transmitted disease. Second, the HPV vaccine is recommended for 11-12 year-old girls, and can be given to girls as young as nine. The vaccine is also recommended for 13-26 year-old girls/women who have not yet received or completed the vaccine series. These recommendations have been proposed by the ACIP-a national group of experts that advises the CDC on vaccine issues. CDC is now considering these recommendations. Ideally, females should get the vaccine before they are sexually active. The vaccine is most effective in girls/women who have not yet acquired any of the four HPV types covered by the vaccine. Girls/women who have not been infected with any of those four HPV types will get the full benefits of the vaccine. The CDC and the ACIP do not yet know if the vaccine is effective in boys or men. It is possible that vaccinating males will have health benefits for them by preventing genital warts and rare cancers, such as penile and anal cancer. It is also possible that vaccinating boys/men will have indirect health benefits for girls/women. Studies are now being done to find out if the vaccine works to prevent HPV infection and disease in males. When more information is available, this vaccine may be licensed and recommended for boys/men as well. A little history. In June 2006, the ACIP voted to recommend the first vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer and other diseases in females caused by certain types of genital human papillomavirus (HPV). The vaccine Gardasil protects against four HPV types, which together cause 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts.

The Food and Drug Administration recently licensed this vaccine for use in girls/women, ages 9-26 years. The vaccine is given through a series of three shots over a six-month period, according to the CDC.

Q: Why is the sky blue?

A: An avid reader of The Observer asked this question of me. The answer comes through compilation of snippets of information from the Internet. A clear, cloudless daytime sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. When we look toward the sun at sunset, we see red and orange colors because the blue light has been scattered out and away from the line of sight. The white light from the sun is a mixture of all colors of the rainbow. Isaac Newton, who demonstrated this, used a prism to separate the different colors and so form a spectrum. The colors of light are distinguished by their different wavelengths. The visible part of the spectrum ranges from red light with a wavelength of about 720 nm, to violet with a wavelength of about 380 nm, with orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo between. The three different types of color receptors in the retina of the human eye respond most strongly to red, green and blue wavelengths, giving us our color vision.

If you want to know why the sunset has the specific colors it does, read on. When the air is clear the sunset will appear yellow, because the light from the sun has passed a long distance through air and some of the blue light has been scattered away. If the air is polluted with small particles, natural or otherwise, the sunset will be redder. Sunsets over the sea may also be orange, due to salt particles in the air, which are effective Tyndall scatterers. (John Tyndall discovered in 1859 that when light passes through a clear fluid holding small particles in suspension, the shorter blue wavelengths are scattered more strongly than the red.) The sky around the sun is seen reddened, as well as the light coming directly from the sun. This is because all light is scattered relatively well through small angles - but blue light is then more likely to be scattered twice or more over the greater distances, leaving the yellow, red and orange colors.

Q: Why is it called the vice president?

A: A vice president is an officer in government or business who is next in rank below a president. The name comes from the Latin "vice" meaning in place of. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president. In American slang, the American Vice President is sometimes referred to as the V. P. or the veep, while the spouse of a vice president may be known as the Second Lady. Vice presidents are either elected jointly with the president as his or her running mate, elected separately, or appointed independently after the president's election

Governments with vice presidents generally have only one person holding this role and, generally, if the president is not present, dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to fulfill his job, the vice president will serve as a president. In many presidential systems, the vice president does not wield much day to day political power, but is still considered an important member of the cabinet. Many Vice Presidents in the Americas hold the symbolic position of President of the Senate.

This info comes via the Web site, Wikipedia. The question, which came via e-mail from an Observer reader, wanted to know why it is called the office of the lieutenant governor and not the vice governor and why it is called the vice president and not the lieutenant president. I am still trying to find the best answer to the question.

HAVE A QUESTION for Glad You Asked? Send your queries to news@rrobserver.com. The column publishes Thursdays.