May 2006 – Page 3 – David Bradley

Science OPML

For anyone who’d like to import all the individual Sciencebase news feeds in one fell swoop, you can grab the Sciencebase OPML file here.

If you’re unsure what an rss feed is click here, and if you don’t know what you can do with an OPML click here. So long as that ‘opml validated’ button appears in this post then the sciencebase opml file is in working order and you should be able to import all the links to the various sciencebase 2.0 categories with your news aggregator. Once imported you can delete any in which you’re not interested (perish the thought) and rest assured that you won’t then miss any of my random ramblings.

If you’re still unsure as to whether to syndicate sciencebase feeds, consider this: Sciencebase is ranked #657 by technorati and has 1,853 links from 1,112 sites reported by that blog directory alone.

You can also grab a selection of the feeds I read via my personal Google Reader OPML file (more details on the David Bradley RSS Subscriptions page)

Puritan Trojans

Lots of pundits point out that the antivirus/firewall/antispyware companies are making big profits from the fear instilled in computer users the world over. Whether every threat is real or not, who’s got the guts to go out into the cyber world unprotected these days, or even plugin in someone else’s USB key for all that.

Now, it seems a Trojan horse program has surfaced that looks rather suspiciously like a goody-two-shoes kind of application. Rather than handing over access to your hard drive to the nearest script kiddy, opening ports to every electronic eavesdropper, and emailing itself to all your business contacts complete with some salacious come on, this little critter simply deletes all the porn, p2p shared files, and eradicates warez from your computer. It’s almost as if, could it possibly be, a puritanical application created with the sole intent of cleaning up the net?

The clever guys at Sophos have dubbed this latest threat to geek sanity “trojerazera” (like Trokan melded to Kazaa I guess)

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/trojerazera.html

It also goes by the name of TROJ_P2PCOPY.A, Trojan.Win32.Eraser.a, Erazor, and Troj/Erazer-A.

If you’re desperate to retain your collection of electronic smut, don’t fancy losing all those painstakingly downloaded illegal copies of software package, and are hoping to hang on to your p2p-shared folders just long enough for the RIAA to find you, then download the latest update for your antivirus software and do a detailed trojerazera eraser job.

Sussex Saved

The decline in UK chemistry departments has been staved off at least partially with a vote to save the department a Sussex University on the south coast that spawned two Nobel chemists.

According to The Guardian, ‘The University of Sussex has abandoned its controversial plans to axe its chemistry department following intense criticism from scientists across the country.’

Vice-chancellor, Alasdair Smith, originally suggested chemistry teaching be scrapped and a new bio-merged department take its place, but, the paper reports that an extraordinary university council meeting held on May 15 saw members adopting a recommendation that will see the incredibly well-respected department retained and expanded to include biochemistry.

Sussex has produced two Nobel chemists Sir John Cornforth (1975, for stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions) and Sir Harry Kroto (1996 winner for fullerene co-discovery) with a former professor of physics, Anthony Legget, being awarded a share of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Physics, for his work at Sussex on the theory of superfluids.

Exxon Valdez

I saw rock band R.E.M. in concert seventeen years ago, just after the Exxon Valdez ran aground spilling its oily guts with devastating effect on Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The two events were not related in any way, but the band’s singer, Michael Stipe, implored fans everywhere to boycott Exxon and its European equivalent Esso because the company, he said had failed the environment on so many counts.

Seventeen years later and compelling new evidence is emerging that shows remnants of the worst oil spill in U.S. history extend farther into tidal waters than previously thought. The findings suggest that the oil is causing unanticipated long-term harm to wildlife. The finding appears in the online edition of Environmental Science & Technology, according to chemist Jeffrey Short and colleagues at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Juneau, Alaska.

“This study shows that it is very plausible that exposure to Exxon Valdez oil is having a material impact on many shore-dwelling animals and is contributing to their slow recovery in some parts of Prince William Sound,” Short says. “Sea otters, for instance, have yet to re-inhabit Herring Bay, the most oiled bay we studied, and the population of otters elsewhere around northern Knight Island continues to decline. Unfortunately, because much of this oil is buried in beach sediments and not exposed to weathering and other elements that might degrade it, it could remain hazardous to wildlife for decades.”

In their study, Short and his colleagues found significant amounts of Exxon Valdez oil buried in sand and silt that only becomes dry during the lowest tides. This biologically diverse zone is a prime feeding ground for sea otters, ducks and other wildlife.

You can read the full story on the American Chemical Society site or grab the research paper if you have a subscription.

Spectral Science News

The latest round up of science news from David Bradley goes live at spectroscopyNOW.com today.

Among May 15’s postings:

Biomedical researchers have long thought that male sex hormones play a critical role in controlling cholesterol levels and lipids and in the development of atherosclerosis, a serious risk factor for heart disease, but new research from Wyeth Laboratories reveals that a protein receptor in the body called FXR, could have a key role, as well as the receptor for the male hormone androgen. “Our results suggest that the activity of FXR must now be considered in studies on the roles of male sex hormones in cardiovascular disease,” Wyeth’s Mark Evans told me.

Also, Chinese scientists have developed a new cheminformatics method for analysing the products of chemical reactions without researchers having to worry too much about any impurities that might be present.

Third up on the spectrometer this week – Coating an alloy with a biocompatible material is a key step in making implants, such as replacement hip joints, that sit comfortably with the patient’s skeleton and undergo osseointegration. A relatively new technique known as surface sol-gel processing (SSP), which is related to the well-known bulk sol-gel technique, can be used to prepare bioreactive nanostructured titanium oxides for adding a thin layer of material on a prosthetic joint. Understanding how calcium is subsequently deposited and phosphate released will help in the fine-tuning of the preparation for the most effective osseointegration.

Finally, watch out for bent copper under stress. Bend a metal bar, if you’re strong enough, and depending on certain microscopic conditions the bar will yield to curvature or snap. Understanding what occurs at the microscopic level when metals are placed under stress has been a key aspect of materials science research for decades. Now, researchers in Denmark and the USA have used a new technique for tracking the orientational changes that occur within the grains of metal as it stretched. The research shows how the accumulation of defects actually strengthens metals during deformation.

There’s plenty more news from the rest of the team on spectroscopyNOW too…

Growing Threat of Spyware (updated)

More than one in twenty executable files on your PC could be a spyware program, according to researchers at the University of Washington. Computer scientist Hank Levy and his colleagues analyzed over 20 million internet addresses, to track down programs that can get on to your computer without you knowing and perform tasks ranging from displaying annoying advertising banners and pop-ups to gathering personal information, redirecting you Web browser to a client’s site or even utilising your modem to call out to costly toll numbers abroad. These scams are the reason why People are looking for IT Services Ottawa, New York, Tokyo, etc.”

The researchers examined sites in the most popular Web categories, such as gaming, news, and “celebrity” sites. [Not sure whether that includes porn sites or not, Ed.]

They found that more than one in twenty executable files contained spyware piggybacking on the legitimate software users might want to install. On average, almost 2% of Internet domains performed drive-by download attacks to force spyware on users who simply visit a Web site. Game and celebrity Web sites were the worst offenders the researchers told the 13th Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego, California, on Thursday. Perhaps obvious is the finding that sites offering pirated software topped the list for drive-by attacks.

“For unsuspecting users, spyware has become the most ‘popular’ download on the Internet,” explains Levy, “We wanted to look at it from an Internet-wide perspective – what proportion of Web sites out there are trying to infect people? If our numbers are even close to representative for Web areas frequented by users, then the spyware threat is extensive.”

If you’re worried about spyware, which can be anything from “annoying to catastrophic”, then you should read the major security sites for advice on general computer security, firewalls, antivirus software, and, of course, how to get rid of spyware and other computer pests.

You can read Levy’s paper in PDF format here.

Anandamide Cannabinoid

There’s a heated debate underway on the NASW discussion groups about whether marijuana is addictive or not.

Deborah Frisch came up with a great comic dialogue between two dudes [has to be two if it’s dialogue, Ed.] discussing the issues and whether or not we should be talking gently about the anandamide receptor or boldly about the cannabinoid receptor in scientific circles. My cartooning colleague Peter Welleman did a great satirical cartoon to illustrate the dudish dialogue, which we reproduce with permission from Deborah and Peter on Sciencebase.

Heavy….maaaan!

How To Do Significant Figures

Some Sciencebase visitors might already be aware of the Significant Figures Blog in which I and a few others pick apart the general media for their poor understanding of errors, accuracy and precision…we’ve had lots of enquiries asking for a quick and simple crib sheet on what sig figs (or sig digs) actually are, how to work them out, and what is their significance, exactly…

So, check out the latest posting on the SF blog to find out more –

Llama Caffeine Dip Test

After another sleepless night did you ever think that your so-called caffeine-free coffee may not be all it seems. But, how could you test to make sure the manufacturer’s claim of drug-free cafe latte is based on chemical fact?

Now, US scientists have developed a simple test for caffeine that could be incorporated into a portable device for use in the home to test caffeine levels in all kinds of beverages.

“We envisioned that a simple method to measure caffeine, even in hot beverages, such as coffee, would be of value to individuals and institutions wanting to verify the absence of caffeine,” says Jack Ladenson of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, “This will greatly assist individuals who wish to avoid caffeine.”

Ladenson hopes to develop a simple caffeine test in which test strips that are treated with a specific antibody will react by changing color in the presence of caffeine.

The new test will be designed to be qualitative only: It allows a person to quickly determine whether caffeine is present, but does not indicate the exact amount or concentration of caffeine. In preliminary tests using coffee and cola, an experimental version of the test effectively distinguished caffeinated versions of these products from their decaf counterparts, Ladenson says.

Ladenson’s team hope to convert their antibody-based test for caffeine into a dipstick that could be sold in supermarkets although he confesses that he has no idea when such a kit will be available to consumers or how much it will cost.

Many of us like to avoid the late-night jitters and insomnia that follow a post-prandial espresso, but there are also concerns about the impact of chronic caffeine abuse on long-term health in terms of stress levels and blood pressures. The US Food and Drug Administration also warns pregnant women not to drink caffeine-containing beverages because of the risk of spontaneous miscarriage.

Ironically, the key to the caffeine test comes from llamas and camels – pack animals that have transported caffeinated commodities such as coffee, tea and cocoa for centuries. The immune system of camelids produces antibodies that are resistant to high temperatures common to a nice cup of char or coffee.

The researchers reasoned that if they could create heat-resistant camelid antibodies that reacted to caffeine, they could potentially build a durable assay suitable for use almost anywhere. The most stable version of a caffeine-specific antibody they produced came from a llama named Very Senorita, which worked even after being heated to 90 Celsius, about the temperature of a really hot cup of coffee. Similar antibodies from mice are destroyed at 70 degrees.

The researchers publish details of their test in the journal J Agric Food Chem in June.

For a cool coffee science experiment check out our education section.

Space Junk

There’s an interesting feature article by Frank Schaefer in the latest issue of ERCIM News (No. 65, Apr 2006) all about space junk. Schaefer points out that the historic practice of abandoning spacecraft, rocket stages, and defunct satellites has led to something like 2000 tonnes of debrit accumulating in earth’s orbit. He produces a diagram showing the catalogued distribution of this junk, much of which is in the form of tiny, but incredibly fast-moving particles.

Obviously, it is a real concern for anyone sending up new equipment as these high-energy particles can rip through equipment and space-suits with rather inconvenient results.

The caption for a photo showing a piece of irreperably damaged circuitry says it all: Degradation of computer performance follwed by cease of operation shortly after encounter of the hypervelocity particle”.

Why they had to say it in such a flamboyant way, I don’t know.