35.9846 years in science communication
X-rays see through cellular process
US biologists have used X-ray diffraction to take a snapshot view of the tiny motor that opens and shuts the cellular portals that allow nutrients to pass into our cells. Jue Chen and colleagues at Purdue University have clarified the connection between the membrane transport proteins and how they utilise a cell’s energy to permit or deny materials entry into the interior of the cell from the outside world.
Peter Cummings of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues have discovered that those marvels of the molecular playing field – the soccerball shaped fullerenes, aka buckyballs, can bind to DNA and cause it to deform, according to computer simulations published in the December issue of the Biophysical Journal. Perhaps most worrying is that they see this deformation in an aqueous environment rather than in an organic solvent.
Cummings and Alberto Striolo (now a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma), along with Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist Xiongce Zhao, used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the question of whether buckyballs would bind to DNA and, if so, whether they could then inflict any lasting damage.
Cummings suggests that his research reveals a potentially serious problem: “Buckyballs have a potentially adverse effect on the structure, stability and biological functions of DNA molecules.”
What is not mentioned in the Vanderbilt press release on this “discovery”, which as you will note is essentially theoretical is that the fullerenes are not particularly soluble in water under normal conditions. Indeed, researchers at London South Bank University explain that [60]fullerene can be dispersed in water but only if it is transferred from an organic solvent using high energy sound (sonication). That word “dispersed” is crucial irrespective of the relatively sophisticated technology required to carry these molecules into water.
One thing that our bodies generally lack is a large supply of organic solvent and a sonicator. So, with any luck, the Cummings work will remain theoretical rather than experimental. While this kind of research must be carried out under the precautionary principle, it is not necessarily providing us with any useful insights into the real risks or otherwise of fullerenes. Moreover, the powerful media machine that includes university press offices these days now has another opportunity to kick chemistry.
With news that after 400 years of stability, the Earth’s magnetic North Pole could soon reach Siberia. If that happens, you can kiss Alaska Borealis goodbye as the Northern Lights go with the flow.
The pole has moved hundreds of kilometres in the last couple of centuries and could reach Siberia within another fifty years according to Oregon State University paleomagnetist Joseph Stoner speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California, this week. The remarkably rapid (for geological change) movement of the magnetic pole doesn’t necessarily mean that our planet is going through a large-scale change that would result in the reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field as some people fear. Instead, this may be part of a normal oscillation, says Stoner, and could swing back towards Canada again.
Whichever way it goes, check out the sciencebase magnetic science lesson plan courtesy of Oregon’s Columbia Education Center.
According to Don Wise, emeritus professor of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amhurst, humans are anything but the product of Intelligent Design (ID), instead he suggests we are the product of Incompetent Design (IcD). Wise cites our sloping pelvis, which causes chronic back pain for millions, our mouths overstocked with teeth, the appendix and tonsils, our upward draining sinuses, and even the benign enlargement of the prostate leading to a staccato peeing style for older men, as being evidence of IcD.
Intelligent designers and creationists stretching right back to Darwin say the wonderful design of the eye is the ultimate evidence for ID. Wise, however, asks what is so “intelligent” in putting all the receptors behind a membrane layer rather than in front for maximum sensitivity? It has to be IcD. Surely?
Wise was interviewed by Maggie Witlin in Seed Magazine.
“Pour yourself a stiff one” Indeed! That’s the word on the pharma lecture circuit as drug companies work themselve up into a lather chasing liquid Viagra.. Meanwhile, there seems to be no end of new targets, even with malaria, cancer, TB, bird flu and the rest providing plenty of fodder, the pharma industry is intent on developing paying treatments for the likes of shyness, hypochondria, and of course premature ejaculation.
Dapoxetine was originally developed as a serotonin-reuptake inhibitor for depression. And, as male users of related quickly, or rather slowly, found out, these drugs cause retarded ejaculation. One man’s side-effect is another man’s therapy. Hence the repositioning, as it were, of Dapoxetine.
Anyway, the industry is, according to Alan Cassels writing in Canada’s CommonGround, keen to get into this new market, although the FDA deigned dapoxetine unapprovable saying that the manufacturer’s claims that it “�increased intra-vaginal ejaculatory latency (IEL) time” better than a placebo, did not stand up to closer examination. So, what will be the next big thing? Have you had enough of my puerile puns and blatant innuendos? Come again for more of the same!
The Register reports this week on the inclusion of the word “Podcast” in the New Oxford American Dictionary and the fact that certain other trendy words from the current vernacular failed to make the grade, among them Sudoku, bird flu, rootkit and bloggin. Maybe next year.
There is some uncertainty as to the true etymology of the word podcast. Most people assume it’s iPod broadcast, with no i’s. Others claim it’s short for Personal On-Demand -casting or Portable Audio-casting. It’s unlikely to be either of these latter two, and more obviously simply a trademark free abbreviation of iPodcasting without the legal problems.
Judging from the gradual tailing off of visitors to my bird flu symptoms page, it’s almost as if people have already forgotten the hype. This is probably mainly due to reduced exposure to bird flu in the mainstream press, and as they say no news, is good news.
Regardless, the science behind the scenes goes on and you can read my feature on the Tamiflu shortage in Nature online this week.
Meanwhile, news just in points to mutations in the viral polymerase gene as explaining how strains of influenza can jump the species barrier. According to Juergen Stech of the Institute of Virology in Marburg, Germany, writing in this week’s PNAS, polymerase mutations may be a pre-requisite to a pandemic, although he also points out that although convergent evolution in the polymerase gene plays a role, polymerase is not the whole story.
The mainstream media is quiet on the bird flu front at the moment, for as long as it stays that way, we’re probably flu free.
Several readers hit the sciencebase.com site searching for gluconic acid. This sugar-like compound occurs naturally in fruit, honey and wine and is used industrially as an acidity regulator in food and drink (E574). It is also used in cleaning products to remove mineral deposits (it is a strong chelating agent for calcium, iron, aluminium, and copper).
Anyway, if you’re after more information and chemical structures of small molecules, you can find more than five million of them using the PubChem search box on ChemSpy.com
Toxic metals emitted from automotive catalytic converters have been detected in urban air in the USA. The research was carried out by scientists in Sweden working with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The researchers discovered high concentrations of the elements platinum, palladium, rhodium and osmium in air over the Boston metropolitan area. Although these particles are not a serious health risk, evidence suggests they potentially could pose a future danger as worldwide car sales increase from an estimated 50 million in 2000 to more than 140 million in 2050.
Scientists have also detected elevated concentrations of these elements in Europe, Japan, Australia, Ghana, China and Greenland.
Finding ways to “stabilize” these metal particles within the converters “should be a priority to limit their potential impact,” says Sebastien Rauch of Chalmers University of Technology in Goeteborg.
Catalytic converters reduce noxious emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants, but as with all technology there is a counterpoint in this discovery of their constituent elements in the environment. Previously, UK researchers have investigated techniques that could be used to “mine” valuable heavy metals, such as platinum, from road run-off. Whether or not this kind of recycling could ever be viable or whether or not it would reduce atmospheric contamination is still wide open to discussion.
An extract of the succulent plant, Hoodia gordonii, with the seemingly cryptic name of P57AS3 (or P57 for short) has received a lot of media attention recently because this compound acts as a potent appetite suppressant. Indeed, trials have shown that it reduces daily calorie intake by 1000 kcal. According to Alok Jha writing in The Guardian on December 3, p57 has attracted the attention of food company Unilever having already been investigated by Pfizer and Cambridge-based Phytopharm. This begs the question, why? Surely, the last thing a company that manufactures icecream and such would want to suppress anyone’s appetite…
Anyway, a paper in the journal Brain Research describes p57 as a “steroidal glycoside” with “anorectic activity in animals”. Now, these are technical terms with precise definitions for professionals. Personally, I’d be cautious of taking a product that is essentially a steroid that triggers anorexia, wouldn’t you? Then again, the side-effects of obesity can be far worse. Just remember, if you’re chasing after this purportedly natural compound on the internet, that another infamous appetite suppressant, which goes by the name of cocaine is just as “natural”.