Author Archives: curiouscat

Schoolgirls Find Vitamin C is Missing

Schoolgirls rumble Ribena vitamin claims:

“We thought we were doing it wrong. We thought we must have made a mistake,” Anna told New Zealand’s Weekend Herald. The girls were both 14 and students at Pakuranga College in Auckland when they did the experiment in 2004. Given Ribena’s advertising claims that “the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges”, they were astonished and wrote to the manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). When they got no response, they phoned the company, but were given short shrift. “They didn’t even really answer our questions. They just said it’s the blackcurrants that have it, then they hung up,” Jenny said.

But then the girls’ claims were picked up by a TV consumer affairs programme, Fair Go, which suggested they take their findings to the commerce commission, a government watchdog. GSK said the girls had tested the wrong product, and it was concentrated syrup which had four times the vitamin C of oranges. But when the commerce commission investigated, it found that although blackcurrants have more vitamin C than oranges, the same was not true of Ribena. It also said ready-to-drink Ribena contained no detectable level of vitamin C.

GSK is in court in Auckland today facing 15 charges relating to misleading advertising, risking fines of up to NZ$3m (Â£1.1m). In Australia, GSK has admitted that its claims about Ribena may have misled consumers.

Open Access Science Education Journal

Science in School is an open access journal focused on science education published quarterly.

Science in School aims to promote inspiring science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists, science teachers and everyone else involved in European science education. Science in School addresses science teaching both across Europe and across disciplines: highlighting the best in teaching and cutting-edge research. It covers not only biology, physics and chemistry, but also maths, earth sciences, engineering and medicine, focusing on interdisciplinary work.

The contents include teaching materials; cutting-edge science; education projects; interviews with young scientists and inspiring teachers; European education news; reviews of books and other resources; and European events for teachers.

The latest issue includes: Silky, stretchy and stronger than steel by Giovanna Cicognani and Montserrat Capellas (on spider silk), A fresh look at light: build your own spectrometer by Mark Tiele Westra, Fair enough? Balanced considerations for future science-fair organisers by Eva Amsen and Fusion in the Universe: we are all stardust by Henri Boffin and Douglas Pierce-Price.

Engineering Students Design Innovative Hand Dryer

Engineering students design innovative hand dryer:

Two engineering students at the University of Iceland have designed an innovative hand dryer, which is powered by hot water and uses only ten percent of the energy that conventional hand dryers need.
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The students’ instructor, Thorsteinn Ingi SigfÃºsson, a professor in physics, got the idea for the hand dryer. The students received a grant from The Icelandic Student Innovation Fund to develop his idea.
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The water goes through a process of metabolism when it comes in touch with a special heating element inside the hand dryer and changes into air, which is blown out of the hand dryer with a fan, as described by one of the designers, Hildigunnur JÃ³nsdÃ³ttir.

The sub-$1,000 UAV Project

The sub-$1,000 UAV project by Chris Anderson:

This summer my project will be to come up with a set of resources and instructions that will allow regular non-engineer people (and kids) to put together a drone for less than $1,000 that has most if not all of the functionality of this $10,000 beauty. The DraganFlyer autonomous helicopter platform shown above starts at just $2,400, and these guys seem to have made good progress on the essentials of a $500 helicopter UAV

Very cool. Hopefully we can post an update on the progress.

Albatross is an open source unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs) project (March 21st, 2007: “unfortunately this project has to be put on hold… We are seeking opportunities to combine our work to date with other ongoing UAV research and projects, before it becomes hopelessly obsolete”). Paparazzi is an open source project for an autopilot system.

Navigating Through The Bloodstream

Can you guess if this is a journal article or press report based on the title: Automatic navigation of an untethered device in the artery of a living animal using a conventional clinical magnetic resonance imaging system? Yes it is a journal article:

The feasibility for in vivo navigation of untethered devices or robots is demonstrated with the control and tracking of a 1.5 mm diameter ferromagnetic bead in the carotid artery of a living swine using a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) platform. Navigation is achieved by inducing displacement forces from the three orthogonal slice selection and signal encoding gradient coils of a standard MRI system. The proposed method performs automatic tracking, propulsion, and computer control sequences at a sufficient rate to allow navigation along preplanned paths in the blood circulatory system.

Pretty cool. See more interesting papers and information from the NanoRobotics Laboratory including online videos and more info online.

Deadly TB Strain is Spreading, WHO Warns

Deadly TB strain is spreading, WHO warns:

Africa’s large AIDS population is at special risk from the particularly virulent strain, known as XDR-TB (extremely drug resistant), which had been documented in 35 countries worldwide, 16 of them in this year. “This is the most urgent thing I have seen in my 15 years of working on tuberculosis,” said Mario Raviglione, director of the STOP TB program at the World Health Organization. He introduced WHO’s TB report, which coincides with the 125th anniversary of the discovery of the microbe that causes TB.
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Some 2 billion people worldwide live with TB, an airborne illness that is normally treatable through inexpensive medication. But if the disease is not diagnosed and treated, it can mutate into drug-resistant strains. In 2005, nearly 9 million people became infected with tuberculosis and 1.6 million died of it, about the same as the year before, which showed that containment efforts were working, Raviglione said. The epidemic is centered primarily in Asia and in Africa, which accounted for 84 percent of the total.

“The good news is that the global incidence may have peaked,” particularly in China, India, and Indonesia, he said. “The bad news is that although the incidence has declined [there] is resistance to most powerful first-line drugs and a form of TB that is resistant to second-line drugs.”

Biologists Solve B-12 Vitamin Puzzle

MIT biologists solve vitamin puzzle

B12, the most chemically complex of all vitamins, is essential for human health. Four Nobel Prizes have been awarded for research related to B12, but one fragment of the molecule remained an enigma–until now. The researchers report that a single enzyme synthesizes the fragment, and they outline a novel reaction mechanism that requires cannibalization of another vitamin.
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Vitamin B12 is produced by soil microbes that live in symbiotic relationships with plant roots.
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BluB catalyzes the formation of the B12 fragment known as DMB, which joins with another fragment, produced by a separate pathway, to form the vitamin. One of several possible reasons why it took so long to identify BluB is that some bacteria lacking the enzyme can form DMB through an alternate pathway, Walker said.

One of the most unusual aspects of BluB-catalyzed synthesis is its cannibalization of a cofactor derived from another vitamin, B2. During the reaction, the B2 cofactor is split into more than two fragments, one of which becomes DMB. Normally, the B2-derived cofactor would assist in a reaction by temporarily holding electrons and then giving them away. Such cofactors are not consumed in the reaction.

Antibiotics Too Often Prescribed for Sinus Woes

This is not one of the more amazing articles, rather one more in the long line of those reporting on the overuse of anti-biotics: Antibiotics Too Often Prescribed for Sinus Woes:

But it’s hard to preach that wisdom to someone with a drippy, hurting sinus who wants immediate relief, Leopold acknowledged. Because more effective drugs are lacking, “patients are desperate, physicians are desperate, and it is not a happy situation,” he said.

I guess I am just out of touch but why do physicians think it is ok to practice bad medicine because people will whine if they try to practice sensible medicine? These stories often tell of doctors that can’t say no to patients even if it means going against what is the best medical advice. Is it any wonder that helath costs continue to escalate, now totaling 16% of GDP, with such practices accepted? How hard is it to say, yeah great you want x drug, that is not medically advisable and is only available by prescription because it is not advisable for people to decide they need it but rather physicians are suppose to make that decision.

And so the physician often makes the practical choice of giving what the patient wants, with a chance of relief, over the more abstract issue of antibiotic resistance, he said.

I understand this reality. I just find it very sad that that professionals sacrifice the future to today’s ignorance and short sightedness. I wish physicians would not reward those demanding they get what they want today since they are simultaneously condemning others to suffer the consequences of such decisions.

But I also want us to stop spending our grandchildren’s money today. Still the politicians act just like the physicians choosing to give the voters what they want today and let someone else deal with the consequences later. Current USA federal deficit: $8,841,291,672,873 (see live debt clock), $29,349 for every citizen of the USA. It seems pretty obvious the same willingness to sacrifice the future for an easier life today is at the root of the actions by both doctors and politicians. Thankfully some are trying to counter this behavior, by both parties, to varying success.

Swiss dig world’s Longest Tunnel

Swiss dig world’s longest tunnel:

As long ago as 1994, the Swiss voted in a nationwide referendum to put all freight crossing their country onto the railways. Naturally, such an ambitious plan was not going to happen overnight, but now the project dubbed the engineering feat of the 21st Century is slowly taking shape.

Deep beneath the Alps, the Swiss are building a high-speed rail link between Zurich and Milan. It will include, at 57 kilometres (35 miles), the world’s longest tunnel. A key feature of the project, which is new to alpine transport, is the fact that the entire railway line will stay at the same altitude of 500 metres (1,650ft) above sea level.
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In fact the price tag for the entire rail link has soared from about $8bn (Â£4bn) to almost $15bn and final completion is unlikely to be before 2018.

Bdelloid Rotifers Abandoned Sex 100 Million Years Ago

Who Needs Sex (or Males) Anyway? by Liza Gross:

If you own a birdbath, chances are you’re hosting one of evolutionary biology’s most puzzling enigmas: bdelloid rotifers. These microscopic invertebrates—widely distributed in mosses, creeks, ponds, and other freshwater repositories—abandoned sex perhaps 100 million years ago, yet have apparently diverged into nearly 400 species. Bdelloids (the “b” is silent) reproduce through parthenogenesis, which generates offspring with essentially the same genome as their mother from unfertilized eggs.

Scientists stumped by 100m years of chastity

Bdelloid rotifers are egg laying microscopic invertebrates — widely distributed in mosses, streams and ponds — which have managed to diverge into nearly 400 species without a scintilla of sex… Now a new study, published today in the journal PLoS biology, has confirmed the worst fears of scientists: the rotifers do indeed present a major challenge to the assumption that sex is necessary for organisms to diversify into species.
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Rather than mixing up DNA, creatures like the bdelloid rotifers can evolve solely through the build-up of mutations that occur in the ‘cloning’ process when a new rotifer is born. The new study proves that these differences are not random and can help rotifers adapt to a different environment, such as the legs or chest of a water louse. Bdelloids can be found happily swimming around in a puddle in your garden, hot springs or in freezing ponds in the Antarctic.