Double heart trouble

US researchers have demonstrated that MRI is twice as sensitive as other techniques at detecting early heart damage in patients with the immune system disorder sarcoidosis.

The early detection of heart problems in patients with sarcoidosis is imperative if the risk of dying from heart failure is to be reduced for such patients. Sarcoidosis is characterized by tiny inflammatory growths, granulomas, that cluster in the lungs, lymph nodes and under the skin, but can also form in the heart. Conventional techniques cannot differentiate between which patients who have cardiac granulomas will suffer long-term heart damage and those who will not.

Now, caridiologists at Duke University Medical Center have shown how MRI can reveal minute areas of heart damage before they reach a critical size. The earlier diagnosis might allow physicians to reduce the incidence of sudden cardiac death, a leading cause of death in patients with sarcoidosis.

The full story is available in my science news column on SpectroscopyNOW

Chemistry with meaning

Online shopping and music downloads are full of meaning, apparently. But, they don’t mean meaning like some deep philosopical property, they mean semantics – the meta data that is hidden from shoppers and downloaders but that makes the whole consumer experience work on the web. Now, my old friends Henry Rzepa and Omer Casher, of Imperial College London, hope to adapt the semantics of other sectors of the internet to provide a richer browsing and downloading experience for chemists.

They suggest that publishers of electronic scientific journals – whether learned societies or commercial publishers – should latch on to the semantic web sooner, rather than later so that the information revolution that is underway in scientific publishing can be complete.

The Semantic Web will foster information exchange by putting documents with computer-processable meaning (semantics) on the Internet so that software agents can help in the dissemination of information. Chemistry is well stacked with latent information that is lost if meta data – such as spectra, physical properties, searchable chemical structures, is abandoned, as occurs when a research paper is published electronically as a two-dimensional PDF file, for instance.

Writing in the journal Chemical Information and Modeling, the researchers describe SemanticEye, a semantic web application that adapts the digital music model to chemical-related electronic journal articles. It allows journal articles to contain embedded document object identifiers (DOIs) and other material. Those clues enable software to find relationships between new articles and those already published, and collect all the relevant documents for the user’s benefit.

Ironically, their paper is available as one of those simple PDF things, but at least the html version has CrossRef links.

Smoking ban

Geordie BoffinAsthma sufferers, non-smokers, and those who really just don’t care for passive-smoking-induced lung cancer can breathe a long sigh of relief as England follows other enlightened states and places a ban on smoking in enclosed public places, such as pubs, clubs, and restaurants, from July 1, 2007.

There’s sure to be an enormous backlash from those addicted to the Nicotiana vapours, but it can only be good for the rest of us who prefer not to partake of the various chemical congeners that accompany tobacco smoke: carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, lead, formaldehyde, phenol, butadiene, etc etc etc.

The ban in England will follow those in the Irish Republic and Scotland. Wales ban begins April 2, 2007.

Anyway, for those who simply cannot resist, there’s always those little patches, chewing tobacco, or what about the Victorians’ favourite, snuff? All the artificial benefits with none of the smoke. Oh, but regular use will increase your risk of nasal, oral, or throat cancer. You may even want to consider getting an e-cig with an Aspire tank for sale as these can reduce your nicotine intake and do not contain vapors that are as harmful.

UPDATE: 2021-12-20 Who knew that “vaping” would be such a big thing so many years later?

ntl Netguard

Cable company NTL offers its users a seemingly simple solution to online security in the form of its snappily named Netguard.

Netguard provides a complete package of services, including antivirus, pop-up blocker, form filler (form filer, it says on the ntl site), and a privacy manager. If you want to pay for extra components there are Firewall, Anti-spyware and Parental Control modules.

The firewall apparently “blocks other users from accessing your computer while you’re on the Internet”. Surely if you’re sitting in front of your machine you can stop them getting at your keyboard and mouse with brute force? But, yes, I know what they mean.

Parental Control – blocks thousands of inappropriate websites, tools to help you control what tools (like Chat) your kids use and flexible to allow for easy over-rides. I hate that word inappropriate? Certain sectors of society could describe almost any of the billions of pages on the web as inappropriate. Youtube is “inappropriate” if you’re supposed to be doing your assignment or the housework. Again, I know what they’re really getting at.

The Anti-spyware module blocks tracking software that tracks your Internet use and steals your personal information. Tracking software that tracks. Well, I never!

Netguard is £2.99 for 2Mb customers but free for 4Mb and 10Mb customers.

And therein lies, the rub. Always a sucker for a freebie, and running on 4Mb download, last week I thought I’d give Netguard a whirl and then review it here. Within minutes a previously entirely stable Windows XP machine was rendered into a flickering “blue-screen-of-death” brick. It took me a whole working day to resurrect the machine using the recovery discs and I still cannot access the built-in DVD player. So, thanks for nothing NTL!

Turns out I’m not the only one. A friend told me they opted for Netguard when their Norton Antivirus expired and they didn’t fancy paying to renew. Same result – blue screen brick. I suspect we’re not alone, although obviously there aren’t many posts about problems with Netguard on the internet just yet because users cannot get online (they’re machines were rendered into blue screen of death bricks, remember?)

Anyway, my advice for NTL users whatever download speed you have on broadband. DO NOT USE NTL NETGUARD. FULL STOP.

Instead, grab yourself Google toolbar for your browser. Google Toolbar has a form filler. Upgrade to Firefox or Internet Explorer 8 for your browsing as it has built-in pop-up blocking and anti-phishing settings.

Next, get the latest version of AVG Antivirus (free for personal use) and the accompanying AVG Antispyware program. And, finally, the free ZoneAlarm personal edition for your firewall. None of these programs have ever crashed or trashed my PC and as far as independent reviewers go are just as good at their jobs as any paid for software and certainly infinitely better than NTL TrashGuard, sorry NetGuard.

The only thing missing from my list of alternatives is the parental control. But, then I know what pages I personally consider inappropriate and can steer clear. That said, OpenDNS now has a powerful parental filter that can be made to work at the router level without having to install an easy to crack nanny-type program on the computer to which your kids have access.

(Hope you got your machine fixed Lesley, by the way!)

Sciencebase readers may be interested to know that since ntl became VirginMedia there is a newly named version of this software I’ve written about briefly here – www.virginmedia.com/pcguard. I’d be happy to reconsider my position on this application suite if someone from VirginMedia can offer me a test machine to try out the software.

Cocaine pregnancy test

Incidences of poisoning and drugs overdoses are common in hospital emergency rooms the world over. But, one thing medical staff lack to deal with such cases is a quick and easy way to identify the particular poison.

For an initial diagnosis, they usually rely on circumstantial evidence provided by anyone accompanying the patient or the victims themselves. Laboratory tests on saliva, urine, or blood samples can be long winded and often the definitive identification of the poison is possible only post mortem, which is obviously too late for the victim.

A dip-test for illicit drugs and poisons that is as quick and easy as a home pregnancy test-kit could save many lives according to US researchers. The team used UV-Vis spectroscopy to verify the performance of a proof of principle test on cocaine.

“Based on this principle, we should be able to develop rapid tests for the emergency diagnosis of a large number of drugs and poisons,” says Yi Lu of the University of Illinois in Urbana. The same approach could also be used to test for physiological molecules and environmental monitoring, he adds.

Get the complete hit at SpectroscopyNOW

In vaguely related news, it has been reported that street cocaine is now more dangerous than ever before as it is allegedly being cut with a cancer-causing chemical. That’s according to the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which reports that there has been an increase in the use of “bulking” additives that resemble cocaine but don’t cut into drug dealer and supplier’s profits. The current scare surrounds the painkiller Phenacetin .

According to the current reports, phenacetin was originally banned from general use in 1968 because of a link to bladder and kidney cancer. The ban was later lifted, but doubts about its safety remain, hence the scare-mongering headlines from the BBC et al containing the phrase “cancer chemical”.

However, a little digging on PubChem reveals that this compound was actually banned because this non-prostaglandin synthase inhibitor was used as a drug of abuse and led to nephropathy in users –

Hangover Cures

Hangover culprit

Hangover cures…don’t work. And, that’s official. So you’re stuck with that thumping headache, the sick feeling in your stomach, and the mouth that feels like the bottom of a parrot (or parrot’s cage depending on what you were drinking.

According to a report published in the British Medical Journal some time ago, but timely once again given the imminent holiday season, the only way to reduce the risk of waking up with a stinking hangover the morning after the night before is to not drink alcohol or at the least to avoid imbibing copious amounts of this natural poison.

There is, says the report, “No compelling evidence to suggest that any complementary or conventional intervention is effective for treating or preventing alcohol hangover.”

Apparently, hangovers waste something like £2billlion (almost $4b) in lost earnings every year because of sufferers taking a sickie and forfeiting their pay for the day. Add to that the cost of the various “hangover cures” those drinkers often turn to. They usually do so in the hope that they will be able to get out of bed and stand up straight without feeling sick or as if someone has hit them round the head with a sledgehammer. You get the idea of just how much all this drunken debauchery costs.

The authors of the paper trawled medical databases and the internet looking for hangover cures (it doesn’t say whether they were suffering the after effects of one too many sherberts themselves). They also contacted experts and manufacturers to find any randomised controlled trials of medical interventions that could prevent or treat hangovers.

The results of their search pulled up eight trials testing eight different agents: propranolol (a beta-blocking drug), tropisetron (drug for nausea and vertigo), tolfenamic acid (a painkiller), fructose or glucose, and the dietary supplements borage, artichoke, prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica), and a yeast-based preparation [not to be confused with a yeast based infection, Ed.]

Of those trials none reported any significant positive effects on post-alcoholic health, although there was some evidence that borage, the yeast-based preparation, and tolfenamic acid had some benefits. “We are confident that our search strategy located all published trials on the subject,” say the authors. “Our findings show no compelling evidence to suggest that any complementary or conventional intervention is effective for treating or preventing the alcohol hangover.”

An earlier paper in the journal suggested that the main active ingredient in beer, wine, spirits and other alcoholic drinks, “ethanol itself may play only a minor part in producing the thirst, headache, fatigue, nausea, sweating, tremor, remorse, and anxiety that hangover sufferers report.” Research shows that hangover symptoms reach their peak, or should that be trough, when almost all the ethanol and its metabolite acetaldehyde have actually been cleared from the blood. Moreover, peak blood ethanol or acetaldehyde levels do not correlate closely with the severity of the subsequent hangover. This is borne out by the fact that between a quarter and half of drinkers claim not to get hangovers even after a drunken binge.

Rather, it’s the congeners – other organic molecules such as polyphenols, methanol, other alcoholic compounds, and histamine – that seem to be to blame more than ethanol itself. Different drinks have different amounts of these nasties. This likely explains why a heavy session on cheap bourbon or brandy – thick with congeners and blinding methanol – is more likely to leave you with a mouth like the bottom of a parrot’s cage and a skull-crushing headache than a half dozen shots of clear, pure vodka. Not that I’d know anything about parrots and skulls, of course.

Consultant anaesthetist Ian Calder of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, in a BMJ editorial suggested that “the fear of hangover prompts most people to moderate their ethanol intake.” This may have been true a decade ago. However, given the advent of vodka-based alcoholic shots type drinks in the last few years and the apparent burgeoning of binge drinker numbers across the UK it either no longer holds true or else this kind of research has reached the boozing masses and their drinking habits have evolved to home in on beverages with lower congener concentrations.

It’s all almost enough to make you turn to drink. Or, perhaps turn to a pharmaceutical alternative to alcohol that might emerge from research labs in the near future, according to a report in newscientist.

Alcohol exerts its effects on the brain by latching on to GABA-A receptors in the brain, and these come in various sub-types. Alcohol binds indiscriminately to them all, interfering with many brain pathways including memory and leading to its pleasant and unpleasant initial effects. A designer molecule that binds strongly to the “good” subtypes, producing the pleasurable effects of alcohol without interfering with essential brain processes, could easily be made the magazine reports. But, do we need yet another substance of abuse, especially one with a whiff of a Huxley-type world of Soma addiction?

Still, in the absence of the hangover-free substance, we’ll continue to see throughout the coming party season websites touting cure-alls from jalapeno peppers and the full English breakfast to a good old hair of the dog as the cure to end the morning-after blues.

My personal tip? Alternate your alcoholic drinks with the equivalent volume of good old-fashioned tap water and make sure you boogie more than you booze.

UPDATE: While it is quite easy to discuss a hangover in a relatively light-hearted way, Sciencebase guest author Sheila Gibbs discusses the far more serious side of drink and how alcohol destroys lives

Starry, starry night

Starry, starry scienceDetermining the chemical composition of 2000 stars in four of our neighboring dwarf galaxies, is a task even the biggest parallel analytical lab would probably baulk at taking on, although of course the referral fees would be stupendous. Nevertheless, a chemical survey of just such inter-galactic proportions has been carried out.

The chemical survey was made possible by the imaginatively named European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. This a bigger than normal telescope operated by Europe’s Southern Observatory, in case you couldn’t get.

The results from this survey are now shedding star light on our Galaxy’s ancient ancestry and revealing it to be very different from that of several of our near neighbors. Indeed, the findings have already cast some doubt on the theory that diminutive neighbours like these were the building blocks for our own Milky Way Galaxy.

You can find out more in the latest issue of Reactive Reports.

Rusty nanoparticles and arsenic poisoning

A subject that I have returned to on several occasions is arsenic-contaminated drinking water. This insidious environmental disaster was first brought to light by Dipankar Chakraborti of the University of Jadavpur whom I interviewed for The Guardian in 1995. However, the problem has not gone away. Various research teams have looked at various solutions to the problem but Chakraborti emphasises that the issue is one of politics more than anything else.

Nevertheless, there are emerging, simple technologies that with the political will to implement them, may one make the arsenic contamination that is affecting hundreds of thousands if not millions of people across the Indian sub-continent a thing of the past.

The latest unexpected discovery that rusty nanoparticles are more magnetic than predicted may help.

Researchers at Rice University’s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) have developed a low-cost technology that can extract arsenic from drinking water. The discovery could save millions of people from untold suffering across India, Bangladesh, and other developing countries where thousands of wells are poisoned by arsenic salts.

Find out more in Issue 60 of Reactive Reports.

CiteXplore

What is it with software and websites and scientific tools that they all have to have these mixed case acronyms, abbreviations, and odd spelling?

Anyway, today sees the launch of another odd spelling from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute – CiteXplore. This is a freely accessible literature resource service that melds data from the peer-reviewed scientific literature with key biological data such as DNA and protein sequences, functions and structures of molecules and microarray data.

The tool essentially searches Medline abstracts, patent abstracts, and Chinese Biological Abstracts and links to publisher websites. But, the crucial difference between this and any other literature search tool is that it cross-links to EMBL-EBI’s biological databases.

‘When you are reading an abstract describing a specific gene or protein, typically you want more information on it, for example its sequence or its function, as well as easy access to the full paper,’ says Peter Stoehr, who coordinates CiteXplore. Built-in text-mining tools allow “touch of a button” or more aptly, “click-of-a-(lab)-mouse” access to the specific record for a molecule of interest.

This is just the kind of system that chemists Peter Murray-Rust and Henry Rzepa have been aiming for the chemical sciences. Once again, the bio guys seem to have stolen a march on chemistry.

Santa Claus Address

Santa Claus AddressNow that Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the Holiday Weekend, and Cyber Monday are over for another year, it’s time to start writing your letter to Santa Claus…

Of course, to make sure it reaches him, you’ll want to know his proper address, not just one of those scammy spammy addresses that say “North Pole”. As you probably know there are actually two North Poles and they never sit still. There’s the geographical North Pole, which is the point at the top of the world through which the earth’s axis passes, then there is the magnetic North Pole, which is quite variable and at several times in history has actually been at the South Pole.

Thankfully, NASA has done some satellite tracking and a little remote imaging to try and trace Santa Claus’ address and have come up with the goods. Check out their images and learn how to pronounce Santa’s zip code here. But, for our recent anonymous visitor who cannot click a link I’ll spell it out:

Mr S Claus
North Pole
H0H OH 0