Health and Medicine – Page 13

Six science selections

Map mashup reveals world’s top science cities – Combining citation data with Google Maps reveals the cities where science prospers, and those where it doesn't.
9 arguments for (against) herbal remedies – About 40% of pharmaceuticals have a herbal origin but that doesn't mean natural is all good. Here's 9 arguments often posited in support of herbal over pharma. The first one: They’re natural. (So what? Strychnine is natural.), Read on for the other 8.
The long-distance shimmer – The secret to controlling an NMR spectrometer is not to let your mind wander. The mind can play tricks on even an experienced spectroscopist…Chris Blake explains the loneliness of the long-distance shimmer.
Simple salt removal to get fresh water – Simple desalination. Scientists in the US have developed a membrane-free, solvent extraction method to remove salt from seawater that works at low temperatures.
Open Laboratory 2011 – submissions so far – It's time to submit your blog posts to the 2011 Open Laboratory.
Is 10,000 hours practice enough? – Some researchers believe that talent is learned and earned through extended and intense practice of a skill rather than being an innate expression of genes that would otherwise lie dormant. This notion is nowhere more succinctly encapsulated than in the 10,000 hours rule. posited by psychologist Anders Ericsson of Florida State University, and made famous by author Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers”. My latest Pivot Points column for the Euroscientist Blog is now online.

My latest selection of six science stories, picked up by David Bradley Science Writer @sciencebase.

Six science selections

How Radiation Threatens Health – Why and how does exposure to radiation make you ill? What levels of exposure are dangerous and what levels are lethal?
Fukushima is a triumph for nuke power – Quake + tsunami = 1 minor radiation dose so far, says El Reg. Tragic as recent events in Japan have been. We should be building more nuclear reactors not fewer. Global warming caused by burning more and more fossil fuel in coming decades will have a far more detrimental effect on many more people than minor nuclear leaks.
Dog walking ‘is good exercise’ – Owning a dog but not walking it is bad for the dog’s owner as well as the dog. NHS Choices unravels the spin on recent headlines proclaiming dog ownership good for health.
Top banana – Atomic absorption spectroscopy is being used to assess how well banana peel can filter heavy metals, such as copper, from waste water. Preliminary results look promising and could lead to an ecologically sound method of industrial cleanup that uses a renewable but otherwise wasted source material.
Toxic robot – A new high-speed robotic screening system for chemical toxicity testing was recently unveiled by collaborating US federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health. The system will screen some 10,000 different chemicals for putative toxicity in what represents the first phase of the "Tox21" program aimed at protecting human health and improving chemical testing.
Crystal unknowns – Frank Leusen and his co-workers at the University of Bradford, England, have turned to a quantum mechanical approach to help them predict the three known possible polymorphic structures of a sulfonimide. The work could assist crystallographers in structure determination of unknowns

My latest selection of six science stories, picked up by David Bradley Science Writer @sciencebase.

Five science selects

How to Find Trustworthy Science and Health Information – Today, we’re overwhelmed with sources of information, with hundreds of television stations and millions of Web sites, and it can be hard to figure out what to trust. Google recently tweaked its search algorithm to bring higher quality sites to the top of its searches, but even then, how do you know what’s good? Here are some questions to ask when evaluating the trustworthiness of science and health information (though many apply to other areas of life)
Placebo vs Pain – Researchers are elucidating the many mechanisms that go into measured placebo effects, and the differing magnitude of placebo effects for different outcomes.
Can chemistry save the world? – The greening of chemistry…
$200 ‘Mini’ NMR detects cancer faster and cheaper than full biopsies — Engadget – Detecting cancer could be on the verge of getting a whole lot cheaper — and better. Researchers at Harvard and MIT have come up with a device that, using a needle to get a tissue sample, has achieve 96 percent accuracy despite having a cost to produce of just $200.
When will we have something like paper.li for scientific publications? – Science needs its own Paper.li, argues Bjoern Brembs.

My latest selection of five science stories on, picked up by David Bradley Science Writer @sciencebase.

Heptastic science news

The full list: The Twitter 100 – Its 200 million users share 110 million messages a day – and if you don't know who rules the twittersphere, you don't understand the 21st-century world. This guide is a definitive who's who of the UK's tweet elite. Although for some reason they included me on the list (at #47, same as Armando Ianucci).
Why haven’t we cured cancer yet? – How many times have you been asked this question, how many times have you asked this question yourself? The answer boils down to the fact that cancer is not a single disease, it's hundreds of different diseases. Asking that question is like asking, "why haven't we cured viral infection?" or "why haven't we cured car accidents?". Even if we can cure one type effectively, there are hundreds of other types to deal with. Even the umbrella term "breast cancer" belies the fact that there are many different types of disease that lead to malignancy in breast tissue.
Recycling carbon – Technologies that can use carbon dioxide as a chemical feedstock are high on the agenda in the face of rising atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas. A novel iron-based catalytic process studied using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectrometry shows how carbon dioxide can be converted into the industrially useful formic acid at an 80% yield. Formic acid might also be used as a fuel cell fuel. The metal oxide by-product is readily reduced using glycerin derived from renewable sources releasing lactic acid, which could be used for biopolymer production.
Feverish research – There is neither vaccine nor cure for the Ebola and Marburg viruses, which cause fatal haemorrhagic fever in humans. However, a new NMR spectroscopic study by US researchers scientists has led to the discovery of a family of small molecules that apparently bind to the outer protein coat of the virus and halt its entry into human cells, so offering the possibility of an antiviral medication against the disease.
Structural biologists catch the pulse – Researchers have discovered that ultra-short X-ray pulses can produce exquisite measurements at the molecular level of biological objects by grabbing a "snapshot" just before the sample succumbs to radiation damage.
Enzymes against cocaine – The interaction of novel substrates for the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and mutants have been investigated using computational and correlation studies. The insights revealed could improve our understanding of how this enzyme, which metabolizes cocaine, might be modulated in drug therapy and the development of anti-addiction drugs.
Spectroscopy & Separation Science – We need the page to get 25 members so that we can switch to a nice short URL…please "like" the page.

From David Bradley Science Writer – seven science selections

Cancer, Gulliver, cat and mouse

Forget fruit and veg. Lose weight and cut the booze to reduce cancer risk
People should be warned that cancer is linked to obesity and alcohol, rather than urged to eat more fruit and vegetables to protect against the disease.

UK trialling testing sugar-coated salt on roads
Although they’ve been using molasses for years in Nebraska and other places to help salt stick to the roads, it’s only just occurred to us Brits to give it a try now that we’re entering a period of severe cold weather (again). Add salt to water and it lowers its freezing point so that it has to be that bit colder for the roads to stay frozen. However, salt kicks up too easily, add molasses and the salt gets more of a purchase on the icy roads and helps defrost them (ever so slightly) producing a nice brown slush.

Stuart Little does a Benjamin Button
Researchers have identified targets (related to the enzyme telomerase) that could help produce old-age-defying drugs and a fountain of youth for the baby boomer population… but haven’t we heard this all before? Of course, we have. It’s unlikely ever to come to anything more than next-generation Botox.

Gulliver Turtle is looking for candidates for BioMed Central’s 5th Annual Research Awards
BioMed Central’s Research Awards are now in their fifth year and apparently growing in popularity. The awards were set up to recognize excellence in research that has been made universally accessible by open access publication, so get your nominations in and see if Gulliver picks you.

Cat and mouse
No sooner do the US authorities begin stealing web domains illegally (actually just taking out the domain from DNS servers), than users find a way to fight back using a DNS system that cannot be touched by any governmental institution and works a P2P network. The problem being that an innocent party might have their domain blocked by the US before due process has taken place and on spurious grounds (and all this before the legislation even comes into effect).

Pharma industry could thrive in open

The pharmaceutical industry is facing tough times. The patents for many of the billion-dollar blockbuster drugs have expired, generics have taken market share. Health insurance companies and national health services are under increasing pressure to cut costs. Manufacturers and governments in the developing world are either ignoring intellectual property rights totally and producing generics for their poor sick.

Moreover, the pipeline is almost empty. Many old diseases the yielded blockbuster drugs have become resistant or are proving too difficult to tackle with traditional small molecule science. The decade-old promise of the Human Genome Project in the form of pharmacogenomics is not yet living up to its full potential, while the diseases of old age represent a new pipeline but the complexity of these illnesses – Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, cardiovascular, even obesity and aging itself – seem to require something more than pharmaceutical intervention. However, macromolecular medicine using peptides, proteins, and genetically modified antibodies are struggling to get out of clinical trials and into the clinic.

The pharma industry also faces increasing pressure from regulators, activists, and patient advocacy groups (not necessarily a bad thing in some ways). The main problem remains, of course, that these days research and development costs billions and takes many years to bring a new drug to market that might not give the company a decent payback on its investment within the patent lifespan.

Ram Subramanian and C. Jayachandran of Montclair State University, in New Jersey, USA, and Jeffrey Toney of Kean University, NJ, suggest that it is time for the pharma industry to reinvent itself, or at least adapt to adopt the ethic of open innovation. They’re not the only ones, of course.

Until now the industry has attempted to rebuild its fortresses through multibillion dollar acquisitions, which suggest that it feels money is yet to be made from medicine. But such consolidation does not pump new products into the drug discovery pipeline it simply funnels the near-empty R&D conduits into a shrinking number of product vats. In 2007, the US Food & Drug Administration approved just 17 new drug products for market, the lowest number since 1983.

The way forward might lie in open innovation where a company initiates a project in cooperation with others outside its boundaries and so accelerates the R&D process as well as cutting costs. This approach has worked successfully outside the pharma industry and some companies, Merck partnering with India’s Piramal Life Sciences and Eli Lilly with Jubilant Biosys are already beginning to see the possibilities.

“As innovation models have evolved, the sixth generation model calls for opening up the innovation process to provide a seamless interface between the focal organisation and a network of, among others, competitors, suppliers, and firms from other industries,” the team says. Of course, given the long lead times to market and the intrinsically scientific nature of the drug discovery process, new models that have worked for technology companies such as IBM and for consumer product manufacturers like P&G may not be entirely appropriate for the pharmaceutical industry.

Ram Subramanian, Jeffrey H. Toney, & C. Jayachandran (2011). The evolution of research and development in the pharmaceutical industry: toward the open innovation model — can pharma reinvent itself? Int. J. Business Innovation and Research, 5 (1), 63-74

Latest science snippets

New cancer treatment shows promise – An holistic and alternative approach to cancer treatment that isn't "alternative medicine"
Pillbox – prototype pill identification system – Pillbox enables rapid identification of unknown solid-dosage medications (tablets/capsules) based on physical characteristics and high-resolution images.
The Alchemist Newsletter: November 12, 2010 — Welcome to ChemWeb – In this week's issue a new definition of the hydrogen bond could lead to major textbook revisions and open up new chemical vistas. We learn that a turbo transfer can be used to synthesize useful nucleosides and organic vegetables are no higher in healthy nutrients than conventional crops. The world of materials could make "Star Wars" type holographic movies a reality and a weed might be the biofuel industry's saving grace in the food versus fuel debate. Finally, accolades for DOE biochemist Richard Smith.

Olive oil, breast cancer, gigapixel scans

Olive oil biophenols – Raman reveals all – The first report of Raman spectroscopy being used to look at chemical structures in olive oil has been published. The study establishes Raman as a rapid, non-destructive and reliable analytical technique for identifying bioactive components, such as biophenols in dietary extracts and surpasses other analytical methods.
One nanoparticle for targeting, tracking and treating breast cancer – Nanoparticles coupled to a fluorescent dye can be used to target tumour-specific molecules in breast cancer providing a way to track the particles by NIR spectroscopy, to enhance magnetic resonance imaging and to deliver an anticancer payload only to diseased cells.
Zoom and enhance for medical imaging – Computer scientists at the University of Utah have developed software that can generate rapid previews of super-high resolution images for medical, astronomical, and other applications. Images containing billions to hundreds of billions of pixels drain computer resources rapidly but a new technique for analysing the data could allow gigapixel MRI scans and other images to be previewed and manipulated much more easily and quickly than is currently possible.

Oilspill, asthma, melamine, peer review

These are the latest science news links and snippets from Sciencebase:

That underwater hydrocarbon plume is still there – Things in the Gulf of Mexico may not be cleaning themselves up quite as fast as some had claimed and many had hoped. Surprise, surprise
Paracetamol use and risk of asthma in teenagers studied – NHS Choices – Health News – It is not possible in a study of this design to determine whether the positive association observed was causal.
Piped David Bradley – My main science blogs, going down the tubes? Yahoo Pipes pulls in all the feeds from Sciencebase (science), Sciencetext (tech), ReactiveReports (chemistry), SciScoop (forum), and ImagingStorm (scientific photos)
New colour-change test for melamine contamination of milk products – First pets died in the US, then babies in China succumbed to the scurrilous practice of artificially boosting protein readings in milk products by adding the nitrogen-rich industrial chemical melamine to milk products. Now, researchers in China have published details of a simple test for melamine contamination, in the peer-reviewed journal Talanta.
Good God! Can’t a Journal Author Have Any Fun Anymore? – Jesus cures case of influenza, gets retracted by scholarly journal
Drug testing – A simple analytical approach to identifying drugs of abuse would be a boon to forensic scientists and law enforcement agencies. A collaboration between researchers in the US and Europe demonstrates how an assessment of different methods using chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry reveals that multivariate selectivity can take into account the degree of resolution between nominally unresolved peaks due to the presence of various drugs in a forensic sample and so allow quicker identification.

4 tips for a healthy barbecue

The BBC weather team promise us a barbecue summer almost every year, and although we do get the occasional patch of warmth, it’s never quite as sunny and warm in the days and balmy and calm in the evenings as it is in the US or Australia where the BBQ expert is truly the culinary ruler in the summer months.

So, it’s no surprise that the American Chemical Society is offering tips on how to avoid some of the health pitfalls of barbecued food and revealing a little about the inner chemistry.

Fundamentally, there are four golden rules for a healthy and tasty barbecue, according to food chemist Sara Risch and author Shirley Corriher:

Don’t over-cook meat. Excessive browning or charring can produce cancer-causing chemicals, carcinogens.
Pre-boil fatty items such as ribs. It removes fat and reduces flaming, which will burn the meat.
Marinate meat before grilling for improved flavour and to cut down on flaming and burning.

There should be a fourth tip: don’t eat and drink to excess on barbecue days and don’t barbecue too often.

Related barby stuff

Barbecued Pork Ribs Recipe
Barbecue that’s good for you (yes, with the meat)
N.B. grillers share barbecue safety tips
Recipe: Barbecued Pork Tenderloin