Author: David Bradley

Nancy Greenspan and Max Born

Science writer Nancy Greenspan, biographer of Nobel quantum physicist Max Born, emailed to alert me to her imminent conversation tour with Born’s son, Professor Gustav Born FRS. The pair will discuss the great scientist’s life and work:

Cambridge: Monday 6 February – 5-6.30pm Sidgwick Hall, Newnham College. Tel (Whipple Museum of the History of Science): 01223 330906

London: Wednesday 8 February – 6.30-8.30pm British Library Conference Centre. Tel: 0207 412 7222

Oxford: Thursday 9 February – 6.30-8pm Museum of the History of Science. Tel: 01865 277280

Switch off and Save the World

The BBC reports today that millions of TV watchers, tech-heads, and gadget freaks are costing us the earth when they put their equipment into standby rather than switching it off “properly”: TV’s ‘sleep’ button stands accused.

Apparently, standby mode is costing Britain 7TWh of energy and emitting around 800,000 tonnes of carbon a year. That’s purely wasted energy. With TV standby mode using up to two-thirds the “on” power for some TVs, the Brits might actually be “wasting” more energy than American TV users, since “it is a known fact” that Americans watch more TV.

Jobs for the Girls

Bradley’s Almanac [no relation] reveals a hidden treasure from a 1960s American childhood – The Exciting Game of Career Girls, a board game not unlike Monopoly for 2-4 players through which young ladies can decide your future career.

Good at Biology? asks one token, that’s good for nurse and teacher apparently, a propensity to neatness is perfect for an airline hostess, teacher, nurse, and model. Being pretty suits you being a model or an actress.

But, you can forget it if you’re clumsy – you’ll never be an air hostess, a ballet dancer, model or nurse. And if you’re overweight that’s “bad for: airline hostess, ballet dancer, and model” but presumably okay for nurses and teachers!

Apparently, there was a boy’s version too that helped young lads decide on whether they were to be future statesmen, scientists, athletes, doctors, engineers, and astronauts. No teaching, acting, or modelling jobs for the boys it seems.

Such a game looks incredibly un-politically correct from a modern perspective and no toy maker would even consider launching a product even vaguely touching on such political issues these days. But, as we found out when I reported for BMN on women in science, gender bias in employment in this crucial field still exists and one wonders just how many girls of the 1960s opted to be an air-borne trolley dolly rather than a scientist because of this game.

No Cellphone Cancer Link

It’s almost been as if the chattering classes were hoping to find that cellphones give you brain cancer. It would give them something else to chatter about, after all. But, the BBC reports that a study of almost 3000 people in the UK effectively debunks this myth – The amount of mobile phone use does not correlate with glioma, the most common form of brain tumour.

If you want to talk about this give me a call.

BioProcess International

BioProcess International provides the global biotherapeutic industry with the most up-to-date peer-reviewed information available today. The magazine is the first and only international publication devoted to the development, scale-up, and manufacture of biotherapeutics.

If you’re working in biopharmaceutical, biovaccine, and biodiagnostic development and manufacturing processes you could qualify for a free subscription

Cat scat and schizophrenia

Imperial College is on a roll today, with the second press release appearing within seconds of the news reported in my earlier posting.

Now, IC scientists reckon they have found new evidence of link between cat faeces and schizophrenia. Sounds bizarre, but apparently invasion or replication of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii in rats can be inhibited by using the anti-psychotic or mood-stabilising drugs commonly prescribed for schizophrenia. T gondii is found in infected cat faeces and can be present in undercooked meat.

Joanne Webster and her colleagues reckon the activity of these drugs against the parasite suggests a role for it in causing mental problems in some patients.

At a time when the UK government is soon to back peddle on its lowering of the cannabis classification in law because of suspicions prolonged use can cause mental health problems, this finding could provide just the evidence the pro-pot lobby is after. Bird lovers too are provided with new evidence for an attack on their nemesis – the cat.

Vioxx Drugs Okay?

Researchers at Imperial College London and Queen Mary, London, are suggesting that drugs related to the withdrawn Vioxx may still be the best drugs for treating arthritis.

They argue that although Vioxx and related drugs have been associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, the same might also be true for the more conventional non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Jane Mitchell and her colleagues have reviewed the medical literature on the use of NSAIDs and Vioxx-like drugs and are convinced that despite the cardiovascular side-effects of certain COX-2 drugs they could still be the drug of choice for certain patients without cardiovascular risk factors, especially if they cannot tolerate NSAIDs because of the gastric side effects of those drugs.

It’s all about benefit-risk management (BRM) which sounds a little like marketing jargon, but underpins a much more effective attitude to medicine than holistically abandoning effective drugs.

Regardless of the status of Vioxx and its analogues there is much imminent movement in the pharmaceutical industry as the likes of GlaxoSmithkline vie for pole position in the market for the successor to COX-2 inhibitors. Of course, if Mitchell and her colleagues are right, then, the generic NSAID manufacturers could take another nice chunk of that market before it’s even opened up.

Primary Elements

Primary age school kids will be exposed to chemistry for the first time, thanks to an initiative instigated by scientists at Queen’s University Belfast.

Chris Hardacre and Marie Migaud of QUB hope to catch students at a young age through their new science programme, which will be tested on final year primary children (age 10-11 years).

Universities in Ireland and the UK are struggling to attract new students, doors have closed at several departments in the last year or two and straight chemistry has been subsumed by new ChemBioChemPhysBiolChem centres and the like. In stark contrast to the many, QUB has actually seen an increase in chemistry enrolment because of targeted approaches to students from primary school to A-level (17-18y) with departmental visits, open days, and demonstration lectures.

This latest initiative could plant the seed (sorry, that’s sounds a bit Bio) in the next generation of chemists through a five-month test period starting this month.

The program will include interactive demonstration lectures, support materials, and student science projects with a prize at the end.

If that doesn’t get them reaching for their labcoats, I don’t know what will!

Flu is Not the Only Germ

Flu isn’t the only pathogenic threat at this time of year, according to a report on News Medical Net [link now defunct], metapneumovirus, rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and others knock many of us for six each winter and are responsible for thousands of deaths. They don’t make the headlines because they’re not so easy to pronounce as “bird flu” nor is there anything particularly newsy about how you catch them (from doorknobs, faucets, and appliance handles, if you must know). They also lie dormant in your nose and lungs too waiting the right conditions to pounce. Despite their low profile, however, these are killer diseases that claim lives needlessly, while celebrity viruses such as H5N1 and SARS steal the headlines.

H2O and All That

Chemical philosopher Eric Scerri recently mentioned a humorous book by Martyn Berry about which I’d entirely forgotten: H2O and All That. Berry was/is a chemistry teacher and created this hilarious compilation of the wit and wisdom of years of student chemists as revealed in their exam papers.

I remember receiving a copy for review when I worked at the Royal Society of Chemistry, some fifteen years ago, and thinking it was the text to bring the wonder of chemistry to the masses. As Scerri points out, it’s still available on amazon for about 8 quid (12 bucks). If you fancy a laugh, I can highly recommend it, it’s timeless humor.