Researchers in Vietnam and Switzerland have developed the first large-scale method for validating the microbial reporter-based test for measuring arsenic concentrations in natural water resources. Their test is based on a modified bacterium (Escherichia coli), engineered to bioluminesce on induction by arsenic ions. The team has developed specific protocols for overcoming interference from iron and has now confirmed the viability of the test against results obtained using atomic absorption spectroscopy.
Category: Health and Medicine
Sciencebase news and views on health and medicine, including posts on Covid-19, bird flu, cancer, asthma, obesity, vaccines, and much more.
Buckyball co-discoverer dead at 62
It is with sadness that we report the death of nanotech pioneer, Richard Smalley at 62. Smalley, along with Harry Kroto and colleagues discovered the all-carbon fullerene molecule in the early 1990s at a time when I was just beginning my career as a science writer. Their fascinating research into the soccerball shaped molecules, which were nicknamed buckyballs by the popular science press, provided many of us with some of the greatest punning opportunities ever in science. More seriously, they and their tubular offspring are after many years of detailed and fundamental research beginning to reach new goals in the field of nanotechnology.
Smalley undertook pathbreaking research, showed an incredible commitment to teaching, and was dedicated to the idea of betterment of our world.
He died in Houston on 28th October after a long battle with cancer.
Flu Resistance
The international science journal Nature has lifted the media embargo on an important paper due for publication next week – The paper raises the possibility that the current prophylactic regimen for Tamiflu (oseltamivir) may have contributed to the emergence of partial resistance to the drug in a Vietnamese patient.
This paper provides an analysis of an H5N1 virus — isolated from a
patient in Vietnam earlier this year (1) – that is partially resistant to
oseltamivir.
The potential emergence of a resistant virus is a continuing concern of
health agencies, although evidence to date suggests that viruses with
mutations giving rise to resistance have reduced fitness, making them less
transmissible and of lower pathogenicity.
The paper highlights the fact that the current recommended
prophylactic treatment regimen may involve suboptimal doses and
durations of oseltamivir treatment that could contribute to the emergence
of resistant virus. It also raises the possibility that a larger arsenal
of influenza antivirals may need to be developed. Stockpiling zanamivir
(sold as Relenza) in addition to oseltamivir may be warranted.
Although the case described in this paper was part of a family cluster,
the paper does not directly address the issue of human-to-human
transmission of H5N1.
Research into magnetic materials and frustrated magnets
Some time ago I wrote a feature article for EPSRC Newsline about frustrated magnets, the article is available on sciencebase.com and has attracted the attention of a fair few web surfers. Interestingly, the most recent of them hit the page in question while searching for “picture of a frustrated parent”. Odd, I thought. So, I did the search myself on the SE they’d used and found that very page at #3 in the search engine results page (SERP)!
Now, I know websurfing can be a frantic occupation, but surely the text that was displayed in the SERP didn’t point to any photographic evidence of parental frustration…
“The conventional picture of a magnet says each atom in a material … Harrison. In such a ‘frustrated’ lattice, the conventional forces … Harrison spotted the parent compound, potassium hydroxy …”
Whatever. I hope the surfer in question found their picture in the end. I could provide one of a frustrated webmaster easily…
Genetic Google
Google is fast, you have to agree…it can somehow narrow down a search of billions of webpages and bring you a list of the “most relevant” within fractions of a second. Admittedly, sometimes that list can be long, but it’s still quite astounding how it does it. Anyway, it occurred to me that maybe its indexing method and algorithm might be useful to those who search DNA databases.
Chemists are slowly beginning to recognise how Google can be used to search for unique chemical structures using the INChI format, so maybe there is potential for DNA searching. Maybe DNA searching is already fast enough, but I somehow doubt it.
Nobel Prize for Medicine 2005
The Nobel committee today announced the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2005: Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren for their discovery of “the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease”
The winners made the unexpected discovery that inflammation in the stomach (gastritis) as well as ulceration of the stomach or duodenum (peptic ulcers) are the result, not of endogenous factors but of infection with a “corkscrew-shaped” bacterium H. pylori
Expert offers tips on how to stay healthy during cold, flu season
As the weather turns colder, you can count on one thing: Organisations with a health expert to hand will publish a press release offering tips on how to avoid catching a cold or flu in the coming months. I spotted the first of the season on Physorg.com today announcing the anti-disease advice of Pamela Aaltonen at Purdue Uni’s School of Nursing. There’ll be an epidemic of them by the end of October, mark my words.
Junk food to be banned in schools
The British government is to ban schools from offering sugary and fatty snacks, such as potato chips and candy (sorry I mean crisps and chocolate), to students through vending machines and to improve the lunchtime menu, partly thanks to public pressure and media campaigning over the last year. The BBC interviewed several studens who said it was unfair and that should be given the same choices as adults. One student said he’d just head to the local shops to buy his snacks, implying that the initiative would have little effect on student health…
But, at least he’s going to have to walk or cycle to the shop to get his snack fix rather than grabbing it on site from a vending machine. It’s only a generation since children were not allowed to eat anything in school never mind choosing between apples or chocolate.
4-aminobutanoic acid – GABA
Lots of visitors to the sciencebase.com site search for “4-aminobutanoic acid” using the site’s Google search box. 4-aminobutanoic acid, or GABA, is (of course) the main inhibitor of neurotransmission in the central nervous system. According to Wikipedia, GABA is affected by drugs such as alcohol, benzodiazepines and barbiturates, thujone, zolpidem, and several others. You can see its chemical structure here. Click through this blog entry to read my recent chemistry news story for Reactive Reports on the subject of the GABA-A receptor and its role in catamenial epilepsy, a form of epilepsy that affects women during menstruation.
Down syndrome recreated in mice
Here’s one to really get the animal rights activists up in arms (as if they aren’t already). The BBC reports that scientists have been able to “introduce most of a human chromosome into mice – and create the most successful recreation of Down’s syndrome so far.” I’m not sure whether the activists will find this better or worse than the ear grown on a mouse’s back in 1999 by Joseph Vacanti. Regardless, a mouse model of the disease will inevitably lead to controversy, but more importantly, it will lead to a better understanding of the syndrome itself.