Old Science Blog Entries from David Bradley

Complete genome sequence - One after the other we see genomes fall, from caustic puffer fish to acid microbes by way of our own life code, it's nature's secrets uncoiled. Biology can leave a sour taste and just as we think we understand DNA, it turns out RNA is far more important than we thought. 21st January (DB)

vrrrrrroooooommmmmmmm - There you go! This page was re-indexed and now that word is a GWB. Feel free to quote from this page and knock it off that enviable position. 21st January (DB)

Age shall not weary them...but statistics might - Apparently, cancer is now the top killer for people under 85 in the US. It has, according to the Associated Press report, eclipsed heart disease mortality. I'd like to suggest that if the researchers moved that age limit up or down a few years they could make some other disease appear to be the leading killer just as easily, eclipsing all others. In fact, if they took into account mortality outside the US, they'd quickly reveal that malaria and AIDS totally eclipse all causes of death at all ages. Indeed, to paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, behind every person alive lie fifteen who died of malaria. 20th January (DB)

Diffraction distraction - I wonder how many people saw the maps in the media showing areas devastated by the 2004 Tsunami and wondered how coastal regions that were not in the direct path of the waves could be devastated as much as they were. The answer is diffraction. 20th January (DB)

Vrrrrooommmm - When I used that word in the blog earlier this week I half expected it to be a Google Whack Blatt, but it's far from it, there are 33 hits in Google for this spelling, but interestingly Google suggests an alternative spelling, "vrrrooommm", for which there were 2160 hits! So, I'm going to find another spelling, mention it here and see if that makes a GWB: vrrrrrroooooommmmmmmm 19th January (DB)

Dell-ightful, Not! - The Register reports that computer giant Dell has been applying legal pressure once again to the Paul Dell who runs www.DellWebsites.com from the Balearic Island of Menorca. Dell claims all sorts of things about trademarks and what have you, but surely this guy poses no threat to their billions of dollars turnover, at least that's what The Register alludes to. But what happens when Paul's business also grows into a multinational corporate giant? Maybe they'll merge or something... January (DB)

Spectral Lines - The latest issue of David Bradley's Spectral Lines is now live. 19th January (PAB)

Computer aided nanotechnology - It took more than a few nanoseconds to appear but Michael Francis and his team have finally pulled off something of a coup in the world of nanotech websites. They've created a site dedicated solely to those interested in computer-aided nanotechnology called www.computenano.com, it's a nice easy to remember name and the site's got a wonderfully vibrant colour scheme and lots of nanonuggets of information for those in the CAN do field. 19 January 2005

Car trouble - This is probably something a real man shouldn't admit, but confession is good for the soul, so here goes. I couldn't get our family car started yesterday morning! The shame of it. I lifted the lid and checked the connections, the looked okay, the battery was running the starter motor but the engine just wasn't turning, so I had to resort to calling out a mechanic. He stuck his foot hard on the gas turned the ignition and vrrrrooommmm!. The engine had simply been flooded. The pedal trick switched off the fuel pump allowing the flood to subside. Now, what don't they tell you that in the so-called "manual". 18 January 2005

The book wot I writ - A sciencebase visitor was after my learned opinion as to whether scientists will be able to create "creatures". The person in question told me they needed to know about "genic studies" because they are "writting a book", apparently my "help would be helpful" in this endeavour. I won't hold my breath for ever seeing their book which they say will be about their life "For I was a research subject". I suppose there are technical translators out there who could decipher their tangled email, but I don't know any. 18 January 2005

Cowardy custard - Maybe it's a deliberate personal sleight, but should one visit the nanodot.org site without logging in, the news page tells one it is generated by Foresight Institute for "Anonymous Coward (1)". Thanks a bunch guys, I'll expect my white feathers in the mail, any time soon. 13 January 2005

Eat and shuffle off - Apple's almost nanoscale iPod Shuffle promises hundreds of songs in a device not much bigger than a pack of gum, and just to cover its commercial back the company recommends that you not eat the iPod Shuffle. Much of the press associated with this seeming frippery suggests that it might not survive the digestive tract intact. More to the point the ensuing unpleasantness of ingesting the device's lithium battery would far outwegh any unpleasantness associated with skipping through tracks post-alimentarily. Unless, of course, Apple has made the batteries in the Shuffle as difficult to extract from this machine as they are from the iPod in which case you might be safe. 12 January 2005

Collared doves - Speaking of incomers, I counted a dozen collared doves sitting on the pergola in our garden just now. This species has all but ousted the turtle dove and their incessant "coo-coo-coooo" fills the summer air. The same sound can be heard occasionally in period TV and film period dramas set in Victorian England. But, as most Brit birders will tell you, the collared dove was a Balkan immigrant just after WWI, and since the turtle dove does none of the coo-coo-coooing (it makes more of a gentle purring noise) you could say the sound is something of a continuity error in those dramas. 12 January 2005

Savings and coupons site - Nothing to do with science really, unless you see shopping as a science, although personally I think it's more of an art isn't it. Anyway, sciencebase.com now has an Online Coupons section, created in cahoots with one of my long-standing business associates. So, not only is sciencebase still a great source for offbeat science news it can also get you a discount on your online shopping, a bargain in the stores directory, or save you $$$ on web purchases! 11 January 2005


Argonne National Laboratory - David Bradley is working on several research news stories for the Advanced Photon Source 2004 annual report. You  can get a sneak preview of some of the items here: dissecting the atom, perovskite catalysts, and SAXS and smart materials. Three more can be found in my science news archive. 13 January 2005

Envirox update - In October 2003, I wrote about the trials of an oxidation catalyst for buses in The Alchemist. Apparently, the re-engineered version that can be used as a fuel-borne catalyst is now being used by Stagecoach in their vehicles. What is interesting about this catalyst is that it is based on nanotechnology, so while it will work wonders for the environment I can see the protesters lining the bus routes now, venting their concerns about public transport turning the world into a grey goo... 10th January 2005 (DB)

Soton Open - The UK's Southampton University has gone Open Access, according to The Register, all of its academic and scientific research output is now available for free on the web. 10th January 2005 (DB)

Tsunami 2 - My sister gave me the excellent Lonely Planet travel photography book One Planet for Christmas. In it are images of some of the most beautiful places and people in the world. It struck me, however, that a large proportion of those photos represent a snapshot of history before the tsunami and that many of those people and places no longer exist. The "sea gypsies" for instance, about whom I wrote a year ago in The Scientist, have been decimated by the disaster. Here's the UK's tsunami appeal site and the American Red Cross site, please give generously. 7th January 2005 (DB)

Tsunami - It's not the time for flippant scientific blogging, so rather than link to anything irreverent on my first working day of the New Year, I'm simply going to link to the UK's appeal site. 5th January 2005 (DB)

Properties for sale in Cambridge - If you're moving to Cambridge, England, with a new job on the science park you might like to check out this houses for sale in Cottenham site. Mutual savings to be had for buyer and seller by bypassing the estate agent. 11 January 2005

The timing's all wrong - How do you fancy a new calendar? I don't mean something to hang on the wall with scenic views of Montana, but a whole new global calendar system? Henry Rowland of Johns Hopkins University reckons it's time we fixed a date to make every date in the calendar fall on the same day every year. So the fourth of July would always be on a Saturday and Christmas a Sunday, say. Moreover, your birthday would fall on the same day every year too. Make planning a whole lot easier wouldn't it? The only trouble is to shoehorn the dates into the new calendar means changing the lengths of some of the months and adding a week long mini-month between June and July in 2009, 2015, 2020, 2026...and so on ad random. Rowland reckons it will revolutionise commerce and save billions. Sounds radical? You betcha, but there's more. Rowland also wants everyone to adopt Universal Standard Time so that we're all on the same clock, no more time zones in other words. If it's 9am in NYC, it's 9am in NZ too. But, as my colleague Stephan Logan points out, it's useless knowing that it's 2:30 in China if you still don't know whether they're still in bed or just about to clock off for the day. Maybe his calendar has already been adopted and we're not heading into Xmas, but April Fool's Day. 21st December 2004 (DB)

Resonating news - The latest issue of David Bradley's Resonants webzine is now live. You wait forever and then three come along all at once! 21st December 2004 (PAB)

X-factors news - The latest issue of David Bradley's X-factors webzine is now live. 21st December 2004 (PAB)

Artificial life - The eerie green glow of a jellyfish protein is perhaps nothing sinister, but the anti-science lobby will be having a field day when they hear about the latest amazing research underway at Rockefeller University into green fluorescent protein (GFP). 20th December 2004 (DB)

Make sense - Christmas shoehorn - I report on three separate and intriguing scientific developments with something of a festive theme this week. In two separate items I discuss how mistletoe extracts could lead to treatments for diabetes and cancer, while in the latest edition of the all-new Alchemist on www.ChemWeb.com I cover the potential for easing the pain of arthritis using the bark of the Scots pine, a rather timely discovery given the gradual demise of COX-2 inhibitors. Meanwhile, enjoy whatever festivities you care to indulge in during the coming days and watch out for new scientific developments reported by David Bradley Science Writer on this site in 2005, it's tenth year on the web. 23rd December 2004 (DB)

Stu's Xmas - My good friend Stu Borman at Chemical & Engineering News has rounded up the chemistry highlights of 2004, which saves me a job. Gratifying to see a few familiar names in his list from my own writing this year too: Think zinc link, Lighting up with nanowires, and Elemental Discoveries among others. 21st December 2004 (DB)

Dioxin ID'ed - ...and the democratic dioxin is... 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, more commonly known as TCDD and perhaps the archetypal dioxin. Further analysis of Yushchenko's "dioxin samples" may reveal the exact source of the poison found in his blood and thereby perhaps reveal the poisoner. Now, being a pedantic soul, I couldn't help but notice that many of the news reports on this story tacked an "e" on to the end of the word dioxin in the name...a quick Google revealed many sites (148) also using the "e", although 68300 have it without (including this one!). 17th December 2004 (DB)

Everyone's at it - I thought I was being a tart writing two news items about mistletoe research so close to Xmas, but it seems everyone's enamoured of this parasitic plant, with revelations about its own love life appearing on google. 17th December 2004 (DB)

AD test - Scientists have developed a non-invasive test for Alzheimer's disease based on the putative sufferer's ability to identify ten common smells including soap and smoke. Newsday reports that the test is easy to do and more reliable than a brain scan. It is also presumably simpler to do than the written test proposed last month after a study of author Iris Murdoch's last published work. 16th December 2004 (DB)

Chemists get dirty in the cleanroom - A Dutch chemist has developed a technique for making LCDs that doesn't require the absolutely dust-free sterility of a clean-room, according to the PhysOrg.com site. Johan Hoogboom reckons he can make LCDs using self-assembly techniques, but more dazzling than that, is that his liquid crystals can be used to see DNA with the "naked eye". 16th December 2004 (DB)

A use for Colin Powell? - A novel peptide of sequence "colinpowell", turns out to be a rather good anticancer agent, according to US researchers. Needless to say the research has been flagged for an IgNobel already! 15th December 2004 (DB)

Democratic dioxin - The Associated Press today reports that Viktor Yushchenko's blood contains 6000 times the normal level of "dioxin". Apparently, it's the second highest level recorded in history. According to the team Dutch team who carried out the analysis a short-list of potential candidates of more than 400 possible dioxins has been produced. They expect, by the weekend, to pinpoint exactly which dioxin of the 29 on their shortlist is poisoning the Ukrainian presidential candidate. The report alludes to the fact that Yushchenko has suffered the worst of its effects and should regain full health. Surely there is some mistake, aren't these the same dioxins that environmentalists constantly tell us are the most toxic environmental pollutants around? As usual, it's a "chemical" getting an overtly bad press. 15th December 2004 (DB)


Christmas postal dates - The December issue of Wyvern (the Essex University newsletter) is dubbed as the "Royal Souvenir Issue". Fitting then that there is a listing of last posting dates for the Royal Mail. If you're interested they are: Western Europe, Monday 13 December, Eastern Europe, Monday 10 December, America and Japan, Monday 10 December, and rest of the world Monday 6 December. So, now you know. In a bygone age, the Queen may not have been so amused by such postal confusion. 13th December 2004 (DB)

The Scots, Scotch, and Scottish - Speaking of timely research results, the American Chemical Society just sent out a press release highlighting how novel drugs for arthritis might one day be developed from an extract of the bark of a common type of Christmas tree . Obviously, I have no qualms with their using such an obvious festive hook for their news release, but worry about what it is exactly that is being tapped off from this tree, as the release names it the "Scotch Pine". As a sassenach, maybe I shouldn't even mention this Scottish problem, but I always thought the evergreen in question was the "Scots Pine" (Pinus sylvestris), although why they named it after a cat, I'll never know. 13th December 2004 (DB)

Mistletoe is for more than just kissing - Quality science news can have a spurious hook just the same, read David Bradley's latest annual mistletoe fixation article in the chemistry newsletter Reactive Reports, with photography by the man himself. 9th December 2004 (PAB)

The sound of spectra - If you've ever wondered what it sounds like when nuclei relax check out this synaesthesic NMR spectroscopy site. There, you can listen to the dulcet musicality of cyclohexane and inositol as their nuclei relax in the spectrometer. If you want to find out more you can follow the discussion at Erlangen and learn how to play Happy Birthday with NMR signals. 9th December 2004 (DB)

Cow testicles - Those English country folk know a thing or two, it seems... According to TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the testicles (or fries) of sheep, pigs, and cows, are a delicious delicacy and in his River Cottage Meat Book he offers us an interesting cooking method for fries. But, hold on just a moment, cows with testicles? Sheep, yes, pigs fine. But, cows? Things have changed a lot since I last took a walk in the countryside, I must say. 8th December 2004 (DB)

The Top Ten Physics Discoveries of 2004 - Assuming there will be no sudden pre-holiday rush to publish any groundbreaking research, the American Institute of Physics has revealed its choices of the biggest scientific achievements of the year. Not surprisingly, the #1 slot is filled with this year's observation of electron spin in a single electron using a magnetic force microscope, a topic covered by David Bradley

in the Resonants magnetic resonance webzine in Issue 11. Most of the other discoveries highlighted will seem just as esoteric to the layperson, but as DB had also added his spin to those stories at the time the papers were published you might like to read a few of the relevant articles: Smallest atomic clock, Foaming carbon magnets, solid superfluid, quantum chromodynamics Nobel prize, spintronic Hall effect... 6th December 2004 (PAB)



Heisenberg certainty - For sure, there's a brief interview with Baron von Weissåcker on the BBC website with Werner Heisenberg discussing the issues Germany faced on whether to make an atomic bomb and seeking Bohr's advice. It's a classic piece of scientific history. 3rd December 2004

It's enough to make you puke - The norovirus is on the prowl again this winter, causing sickness and diarrhoea across the land. Now, a step towards a better understanding of this enigmatic pathogen has been taken by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis scientists. The team, led by Skip Virgin, has successfully grown the festive-sounding winter vomiting virus in the laboratory for the first time. Noroviruses, of course, are anything but festive, laying low young and old alike, so this breakthrough research doesn't come a moment too soon and will hopefully allow researchers to study the virus in much more detail than ever before and devise a novel treatment for WVV. 3rd December 2004

Sciencebase science newsfeed - Don't forget you can get the latest headlines from sciencebase and associated webzines direct to your news aggregator, Thunderbird inbox, and as an active bookmark in Firefox. More information is on the RSS Feed Info page, click any green RSS button on the sciencebase site to learn more. 3rd December 2004


Neodymium rare earth magnets - Mini-magnets based on a compressed mixture of neodymium iron, and boron powders are about ten times stronger than normal iron magnets. They are normally used in scientific equipment and to demonstrate the power of nature's forces. A novel use has also emerged in the fashion world, however, as a pair of such magnets can be used as a fastening for imitation body piercings, they allow jewellery to be firmly attached to a body part without the need for an actual piercing. They have to be the trendiest piece of scientific equipment out there, but be careful in handling - they can pinch! 1st December 2004

Atoms of cheese and stuff - A new wikipedia-style chemistry site has emerged from the hallowed halls of Durham University. The site explains in depth the nature of stuff and highlights the big names in science over the last few centuries from James Atom to Jean-Baptiste Moleculé. If you've ever wondered what happened to the element umpteenium, you can find out here. 1st December 2004

Small but perfectly formed (molecules) - You can now read David Bradley's latest article for Nature on the topic of the molecular version of PubMed, PubChem, and the development of a related database at EBI, ChEBI. 1st December 2004 (PAB)

MMR vaccine and autism - I've included a guest editorial from a fledgling science writer in the latest edition of Elemental Discoveries. In his first article for ED, Michael Marshall tackles the controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine and the purported links to autism. 29th November 2004

Another one bites the dust - It's just as well, everyone has gone "bio" or "nano" as Exeter joins a growing list of British Unis to announce it is to stop teaching chemistry. There is some consolation for the non-aesthetes among the 130 redundant chemistry staff though, music and Italian departments are shutting up shop too! Nevertheless, are we likely to see the end of chemistry teaching across the UK's universities, where will the industry look for chemists in the future? 25th November 2004

Handbags at dawn in the chemistry lab - A private argument has erupted into the public domain about who laid the foundations of our modern understanding of organic chemistry. 25th November 2004

Remember: another reason for an apple a day - Cornell University scientists have demonstrated that a powerful antioxidant found in apples and certain other fruits and vegetables can protect brain cells against oxidative stress. The compound might therefore be protective against tissue-damaging processes that are associated with Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders. The team, led by C.Y. Lee, suggests that dietary intervention in the form of eating more antioxidant-rich foods may help prevent such disorders. However, he cautions that genetics and other environmental effects play a role but adds that eating one fresh apple a day could help protect against oxidative stress. Read more: Compound in apples may help fight Alzheimer's disease  25th November 2004

The world-wide web without spiders - An Israeli-German research collaboration has produced the first artificial spider silk without the assistance of spiders. Spider silk is pound for pound stronger than steel and way tougher than silkworm silk. You can read about how earlier science unravelled the spider's web in an article by David Bradley

. 24th November 2004 (PAB)

Drums and wails - We're rather spoilt for choice in the modern age when you consider how our ancestors were happy with a few logs to beat and somebody wailing along. Whether we're happier with our mp3 sites, iPods and limitless variations on the twelve-bar blues and three-chord trick I don't know. After all I remember my father telling me that the heavy rock I listened to as a teenager fit precisely that ancestral description of logs and wailing, anyway. 23rd November 2004

RussiTunes - Now, here's a thing. For those who've always felt a little queasy about the ethics of P2P systems for getting hold of the latest tunes, there is a legitimate alternative - www.allofmp3.com. It's based in Russian has 300,000 tracks available for immediate download (it's fast and you can get full CD quality) and if you buy yourself a gift certificate (about $20 for 1500 Mb) from www.1cent-music.de with your Paypal account you don't even have to hand over a credit card number. According to various independent industry observers (including sciencebase favourite The Register) and the allofmp3 site itself, differences in the copyright laws in Russia mean the RIAA doesn't have a legal leg to stand on in going after the site. So if you feel that $0.99 is still too much for a track, then how does $0.01 sound? 23rd November 2004

X-factor(s) - It's perhaps not surprising, but this site is now getting lots of hits from people looking for news on the X-Factor "talent" search TV show. Not surprising because I write a news column for spectroscopyNOW.com called X-factors and have done for almost two years now. The X-factors webzine is currently at issue 13, and I'm right in the middle of writing Issue 14, so watch out for it in the next week or two. Oh, if you're after a link to the X-factor TV show...tough, they're not getting my hits! And, funnily enough they're probably not getting their own either. 22nd November 2004

Kyoto Schmoto - I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has spotted the fatal flaw in the underlying "science" on which the Kyoto Protocol is based...carbon dioxide a major greenhouse gas? Surely there's been some mistake. According to Dr Peter Turner writing in Chem@Cam (and before that my good friend Dr John Emsley), points out that the infrared spectrum of carbon dioxide (and methane come to that) on which the whole global warming debate apparently hinges doesn't fit the criminal frame at all, there are just too many gaps for it to have a serious effect. Indeed, irrespective of the evidence of global warming or otherwise (which in itself is dubious to say the least), water vapour is the only greenhouse gas worth worrying about. Its IR absorption spectrum is so much broader than any of the other so-called greenhouse gases. Moreover, water vapour is present in the atmosphere at such significantly higher levels than any other greenhouse gas that their effect if any would be too small to be measurable. Anyway, more CO2 means more green plants, which can only be a good thing! 22nd November 2004


Geez'a job! - If you're after a job in science, a good place to start looking is www.nature.com/naturejobs/jobs as recommended by sciencebase reader David Bowen, who also tells me the site is RSS enabled so there's no excuse for missing that application deadline.  19th November 2004

Record breaker - Details of the world's smallest test-tube were published this week in my editorial alma mater, Chemical Communications. Scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Nottingham have carried out a chemical reaction inside a carbon nanotube, the editorial office tells me. The nanotube has an inner diameter of about 1.2 nanometres and is just 2 micrometres long, giving it an internal volume of one yoctolitre. The "test-tube" has been verified as the smallest by the Guinness Book of World Records. What is not mentioned is where they find the nanochemists to hold the test-tube over the nano-Bunsen burner. 19th November 2004

B,C, or P? - SciObs gained another new reader today. Someone who typed into Google the phrase: of the "three sciences-physics, chemistry, and biology- the most complex is". Quite gratifyingly SciObs came out top...but I wonder what the reader hoped to find with such a complex query. Surely not the answer to their implied question. Personally, I would have used an actual question and put it in quotes to find the answer to "Which is the most complex science?" Funnily enough the single hit claims it to be biology. 17th November 2004


Bouncing member - Google is readying itself to launch the successor to Google Groups (which itself emerged from Deja News (remember that!?) the searchable web version of Usenet. Anyway, on the FAQ there's a rather bizarre question - "What's a bouncing member?". I didn't dare test my net nanny software on the answer, but click the link if you want to find out. 16th November 2004


A contract on scientists - A new feature from David Bradley's archive has been added to this month's Elemental Discoveries rolling issue...the article originally appeared on BioMedNet and discusses the issues and challenges facing contracted research assistants. 15th November 2004 (PAB)

Significant metric - This week, a guest editorial from Stephan Logan on his national paper's inability to grasp the significance of numbers. 15th November 2004

Spotlight on physical science - The latest issue of the Spotlight webzine, which I writer for the PSIgate search engine is now online. Read about the spherical chemical, the astronomical lucky break, a natural reaction and sewage power. 15th November 2004

Global obesity - It's world diabetes day on the 15th and the theme for 2004 is "fight obesity prevent diabetes". That's all well and good, but focusing on obesity for one day in a year is not going to solve the problem - pressure on governments and the food industry to reduce our reliance on high-calorie ready meals and junk food might. Moreover, I bet that date passes with most of the global population not even noticing and not worrying about obesity but about getting enough to eat that day. 12th November 2004

Optical recognition - The A4 Tech optical mouse is unique as it needs no batteries. According to the company news release blurb (reported by PhysOrg), this "revolutionary mouse"* not only creates a "friendlier environment" (do they mean its environment friendly, or will it help me stay friends with my colleagues?) but also because it has no batteries means "less harmful static and electric waves in your living space". Marvellous what technology can do, I was living in constant fear of static and electric waves from the world's 1.5 volt batteries, weren't you?) But, pseudoscience aside, this supposedly wireless battery free mouse is not power free at all, it only works on its "unique" USB pad" Hah", which surely acts as a broadcast unit itself for those nasty "electric waves"! 10th November 2004 (*I can almost picture Mickey in a Che hat!)

Dear NASA... - Why do you insist on significant figure foolishness? I quote: "...Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) above the [Titan] surface..." and later "...about 2,494 (1,550 miles)..." Surely, "about 2500 km (~ 1500 miles)" makes far more sense, after all what 53 miles when you're several hundred million from home? Source: Oozing across Saturn and Cassini Radar. 10th November 2004

Glucosamine sulfate supplements - are supposed to help ease joint pain by acting as a precursor for chondroitin sulfate in the joints, chondroitin in turn . But, recent research showed that our cells make ample glucosamine for chondroitin synthesis themselves directly from glucose without ingested glucosamine having any effect whatsoever. Indeed, the researchers, writing in the journal Arthritis Rheumatology, point out that the concentrations of glucosamine produced in the cells of our joints are many times higher than those available from even the most "powerful" of supplements. So, the only thing users are supplementing is the manufacturer's bank balance. In fact, the evidence of any benefits to taking glucosamine supplements came from industry-sponsored trials! You are better off spending your money on some nice oily fish. 9th November 2004

David Bradley blows own nose - Wondering how to avoid the sniffles this winter? Check out Mark Mengels' top tips. 3rd November 2004 (PAB)

Ethnic mystery - Who are the enigmatic Nonobese people? Where did they come from and where are they going? 4th November 2004

Tender chops - As if talking to your plants weren't bad enough, now Australian scientists reckon a sheep that is more mild-mannered than the others will give the most tender chops. Kelly Drake of the Cooperative Research Centre for Cattle and Beef Quality, has been working with sheep at CSIRO's McMaster Laboratory in Armidale (New South Wales). And, contrary to popular belief, she says sheep do have individual personalities. It's enough to make a vegetarian sigh. Now, pass me the mint sauce...would you? 2nd November 2004

You've been (more than) talking in your sleep... - The idea of sleep walking is very familiar, but sleep fu......I mean sleep sex? Doctor Peter Buchanan reported to the Australasian Sleep Association how a respectable, middle-aged female patient would sleep walk and have sex with strangers. Now, what are the chances of that standing up in the divorce court? Apparently, it is an increasingly common form of parasomnia. What wasn't mentioned, however,  is whether or not the men she was having "sleep sex" with were also asleep nor what they thought they were doing having sex with a woman who didn't even have here eyes open when they met let alone during the act! 2nd November 2004

Pharmacogenomic WMD - I don't recall whether I read this or simply had a nightmare about it. Pharmacogenomics can create pharmaceuticals tailored to a person's particular genome, such drugs would work for that patient's target enzyme but have no effect on another's. But, what if some nasty bugger created an inhibitor of a particular enzyme or protein receptor that was found only in a certain ethnic group? We could see WMD that could take ethnic cleansing to the lowest depths possible. A biological weapon tailored to one ethnic group could be sprayed widely without worrying about one's own people coming to harm...please tell me this was just a dream... 1st November 2004

Feeling blue - The RSC's Alan McNaught sent a shiver down my spine earlier when he emailed to tell me the next edition of the organic nomenclature tome, colloquially known as the IUPAC Blue Book is now ready for appraisal by the chemistry community prior to its publication next year. I thought for one dread moment he was going to ask me to edit it! Thankfully, not, he thought that the chemists among the sciencebase readership would be interested to know about the new tack being taken with this edition that will help clarify the chemical literature, IP rights, and patent law with regards to organic compounds. 29th October 2004

Googling for chemists - Chemical web pioneers Henry Rzepa and Peter Murray-Rust have done it again. Having first developed the chemical/mime type. They have now hit on a simple method that will open up the web to chemical exploration by latching on to the INChI format for molecules meaning chemists will be able to search for molecules on the web in the same way someone else might search for a song lyric or other string of text. Read how they and their colleagues did it here. 28th October 2004

Hobbittsss - Does anyone else think it a little tasteless that we've dubbed a fellow Homo sp. a Hobbit? What do we tell them if it turns out there is a small enclave of this species living on the island of Flores and they can talk? Would you want to be labelled as having cloven hooves and pointy ears and previously existing only in the allegorical world of JRR Tolkien? Couldn't we have just called Homo floresiensis something innocuous like Florrie or Flora? 28th October 2004 The same thought seems to have occurred to Desmond Morris, smart chap that he is, who writing on the BBC site today asks, if we were to meet Hf would we put it down for a place at Eton or put it in the zoo? 29th October 2004

Pink, blue, purple pumpkins - What more could you ask for this Halloween? According to Associated Press writer Jenny Price, pumpkins in hues other than the traditional orange could soon be on the way thanks to growing demand from consumers hoping to out-do their neighbours with more and more outlandish decorations each October 31. Never say science isn't useful!  27th October 2004

Moving pictures - There's film fun to be found with a scientific flavour on the set of the upcoming Fantastic Four movie where Indigo Instruments' exquisite twelve-layer DNA model is expected to take a cameo role. The model turned actor adds a double twist to the art of scene setting. 26th October 2004

Alvin - Alvin has had its last view of Davy Jones' Locker - the deep-sea submersible is finally being sent to dry dock after many years of high-pressure action. David Bradley has salvaged his feature article from an old wreck (HMS Beagle) and will be making it available in the November issue of Elemental Discoveries. SciObs readers can get a sneak preview of the marine scientists under pressure now. 25th October 2004

Viagra - Several readers have been asking about the chemical structure of Viagra, so I've generated one with ACD's ChemSketch and embedded it and a mol file version in my Viagra feature, touch wood that it functions properly 21st October 2004

Spot the molecule - A chemical history page on the ANL website (http://www.cmt.anl.gov/cmthistory/contents.htm) depicts and intriguing molecule, anyone recognise it? 21st October 2004

Science Writers for hire - If you're looking for science journalists other than David Bradley check out the ABSW and NASW websites, but if you're afer David Bradley you can get in touch via his feedback form. 21st October 2004

Discovering a drug swansong - You can read David Bradley's last feature article for the soon to expire ACS magazine Modern Drug Discovery. The article discusses the potential of data mining in the drug discovery process and is available as an 88kb PDF here. 21st October 2004

Nobel October - Read David Bradley's take on this year's Nobel Prize for chemistry in science webzine Spotlight. Oh, and the physics and the medicine prizes too! 20th October 2004

Firefox promo - Regular visitors to sciencebase will have spotted I've been promoting the open source web browser Firefox and the email counterpart Thunderbird. There are countless reasons to switch away from MS products to these two programs, just look at the frequent security updates required of MS products simply to protect your system from worms and other nasties. Anyway, Mozilla is now after donors to help it sponsor a full-page ad in the New York Times that will hopefully bring Firefox to the masses. Minimum donation is a mere $30. The widespread adoption of Firefox could herald the demise of the bloated and hazardous MSIE. 20th October 2004

Grey turns green - It's only a matter of weeks since the nanotech lobby managed to persuade the public that we're not going to be engulfed by a mass of grey goo, but now hot on the heels of a warning from the Royal Academic of Engineering of the potential disaster waiting to happen, we learn of "green goo". Green goo, according to the Junk Science site is what will emerge from the fusion of biotech and nanotech. Never mind the potential for "mind chips" and artificial retinas, let's just worry about some long-shot fantasy problem. 20th October 2004

Spectral Lines hits 40! - Our spectroscopy news webzine hit issue 40 this week: read about the polarized view of the Big Bang, testing times for atmospheric researchers, NMR crystallography, and the spit test for disease coming to a surgery near you. 19th October 2004

chemweb and chemwebdev - Many readers will be well aware of the pioneering discussion group chemweb (no relation to ChemWeb.com, by the way) but now there is a new kid on the block with a different remit - chemwebdev-l. 19th October 2004

Going Google  - Sciencebase has been using a Google search tool for years to allow readers to search the site and other webzines, but now we've added a science flavoured version of Google to the search page to let you search the wider web for science. 15th October 2004

Google desktop search - Google has trumped Microsoft, and basically everyone else who was planning to bring browser-based searching of your PC to your desktop. However, instead of desktop searching being an operating system component, Google now becomes part of your desktop. Why wait for Longhorn? There are privacy issues that far too many people will worry about, but if you don't mind using GMail for private emails then nothing should stop you using Google Desktop searching. Anyway, the logo is too cool to miss. 14th October 2004

Jacques Benveniste RIP - On the day I started editing my article on homeopathy to make it available on sciencebase, I spotted Philip Ball's tribute to the late Jacques Benveniste. 14th October 2004

What colour is your publisher? - Henry Rzepa mentions on the "chemweb" discussion list that it is important we all know the colour of our publishers. Good is Gold. Green is not bad, and Pale Green is a little worse. I once decorated our apartment with Dulux "white with a hint of apple", don't ask me why, that's probably one of the palest greens around so I now know why it never felt comfortable editing in that abode. I obviously should have used Gold with a hint of tongue (in cheek). 13th October 2004

Part card game, part debate - Here's something a little unusual, the Democs Science Card Game, (DEliberative Meeting Of CitizenS), is part card game, part policy-making tool that enables small groups of people to engage with complex public policy issues. It could put a new slant on the term stakeholder in a scientific argument. 13th October 2004

The heat is on, is it? - So, carbon dioxide levels are up and "most scientists" agree that the future is bleak, or rather balmy, depending on how you look at the potential for climate change and global warming. But, carbon dioxide isn't the most potent of greenhouse gases (doesn't that honour lie with water vapour?) and none of "most scientists" have provided a definitive relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and average global temperature. Indeed, there are some scientists who are convinced that we have overlooked several important factors in predicting climate change. 12th October 2004

Googlewaste - Googlewhacking is perhaps a bit of harmless fun, finding an ultimate google whack blatt, such as Threedlization on a web page. But, making up words and claiming "copyright" defeats the object of the exercise, really. Anyway, instead of wasting time on whacking off, you could be writing a science feature article for the next issue of Elemental Discoveries. It's not that I've run out of ideas, I just fancied a break. If you would like to make a contribution and see your name in lights (Hah!) please email me asap. 12th October 2004

Wisswesser Line Notation - Discussion on the CHMINF listserv about linear notation approaches to chemical structure representation (exciting, huh?) prompted me to dig back into the chemical archives. Apparently, Wisswesser's approach meant chemical structures could be represented using punch cards... Click for more details on Wisswesser's work and Wisswesser Notation. 11th October 2004

Historic Chemistry - The RSC's journals back catalogue from 1841-1996 is now available to UK universities for just fifty quid. I do believe I would have edited a small, small fraction of those papers, so make your own value judgement about the peppercorn fee! 11th October 2004

Just a sitting typo - It's only a typo, but a press release from one of the bigger science journals dropped into my inbox claiming that "inflation after the Big Bang is a tenant of the standard model of cosmology." Truly a noisy neighbour then, or maybe just a cosmological principle. 8th October 2004

Nobel poll - Should essentially biological discoveries be excluded from the Nobel Prize for Chemistry? Vote now in our online poll. 7th October 2004 (Apologies for the date mix-up earlier: wetware error)
 
Squaring what's round - Scientists at the University of Melbourne have successfully grown an unusual square-shaped bacterium found in salt lakes that has mystified scientists for a quarter of a century. Their achievement opens the door to a huge field of exploration of major ecological significance to Australia, greatly expanding the known microscopic biodiversity of salt lakes. 7th October 2004

Physics teaching - I thought physics teachers were busy people, seemingly not. An inadvertent autoresponder to the PTNC (Physics Teaching News and Comments) list from one subscriber who shall remain anonymous elicited a shamefully damning response. All she wanted to do was let her email correspondents know that she was "Out of the office". But, such was the importance of this serious breach of archaic netiquette, that almost within seconds of the autoresponder being distributed by the listserv had someone piped up with the inevitable: "why should I need to know this?" If I had a penny for every time I've seen such a response on numerous listservs I'd have.......at least one-pound-thirty-six. 7th October 2004

Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2004 - ...and the winner of this year's chemistry Nobels are Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose for their work on ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. So, worthy, but once again chemistry with a big bio tacked on the front end! 6th October 2004

Saving Wales - The EU has sunk Wales into the Irish Sea. More fool them and pity us, we'll now have to suffer at least a decade of Manic Street Preachers records moaning about it.  5th October 2004

Foxy browser - The more I use it, the more I see how Firefox/Mozilla is a far cooler browser than MSIE ever was - just one of the smart features (aside from far greater security) that exploits its tabbed windows approach is the possibility of having a multiple-page homepage. So, you can have SciObs, sciencebase, reactive reports and all your other favourite sites in one window!  5th October 2004

Ladybird invasion - The first sighting of a tiny, continental invader could spell the end of the native British ladybird, familiar for its red case and black spots. The incomer is a voracious species, known as the harlequin, and has a black body and red spots. It could also spell the end of countless ladybird preschool, toddler groups, and children's nurseries around the country that will have to reprint all their letterhead and t-shirts to invert the red and black. 4th October 2004

Nobel Medics - The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004 was awarded to Richard Axel of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia University, NY and Linda B. Buck of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA for their work on "odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system". You can read about Luca Turin's alternative theory of how we smell in the Elemental Discoveries archives. 4th October 2004

Browsers - For those interested in such things, the latest sciencebase stats show that 74% of visitors to the site are using versions of 5 or 6 of Internet Explorer, while less than 10% visited with a flavour of Netscape. How things change. Meanwhile, the likes of Opera, and Firefox/Mozilla are very, slowly gaining pace but still represent less than 5% of visitors between them. I suspect though that non-MSIE browsers are going to come to the fore in coming months as users latch on to their inherent safety and security in comparison with MSIE. Meanwhile, I've finally tweaked the CSS stylesheet for sciencebase and, along with many other pundits, would now recommend that readers switch to one of those other browsers (while you're at it, why not ditch Outlook for an email program that is immune to worms too, such as Thunderbird or Pegasus Mail?). You know it makes sense. 4th October 2004

Nobel thoughts - I'm half thinking of running a sweepstake on the Nobel prize in chemistry for this year. ISI has already published it's predictions of the chemists in the running and tick off my old friends Fraser Stoddart, KC Nicolaou, and George Whitesides on the list. I heard an ugly rumour once though, that anyone shouting about getting a Nobel would generally be scratched from the list, I just hope those guys haven't quoted ISI within Swedish earshot! 4th October 2004

Cancer cure - This week's Cambridge Network Newsletter has an interesting headline: "Cambridge companies collaborate to fight cancer battle" aside from the ludicrous use of alliteration, it's what follows that matters: "...are working together with leading international surgeons to establish the best market entry strategy for [an] advanced imaging technology for breast cancer...". "best market entry strategy"? And, there was me thinking they were battling against cancer. 30th September 2004

Reactive Reports - Issue 40 of the science news webzine is now online: find out about sexy elephant chemistry and how these animals make their erotic trunk calls. Also in this issue, the artificial atoms that produce a golden glow and could be used in the next generation of medical and biological labels. Plus, that INChi feeling, how informatics specialists are developing a unique tag for every molecule (you can download the system via the link at the foot of my article) and, finally, researchers are working out how to hardwire nanotechnology. 29th September 2004

Spectral Lines - Spuds, boomerangs, nisin easy does it, jungle gym solids and an SOS for chocoholics - check out the latest news with a spectral bent in this trio of webzines from David Bradley and SpectroscopyNOW. 29th September 2004

XML RSS ETC - News headlines from the DBSW stable of science news webzines is now available in newsfeed format - click those silkscreen buttons (top right) to find out more! 29th September 2004

By, Toutatis! - The asteroid is heading this way. Watch out for that sky. Quite bizarrely, the NASA website giving details of the asteroid's path and expected time of arrival claim that it is named after "an obscure Celtic and Gallic god". Obscure?!? Don't they read Asterix & Obelix at Mission Control. Anyway, the site goes on to tell us that the "yam-shaped space rock" measures "1.92 kilometers (1.2 miles) by 2.29 kilometers (1.4 miles) by 4.6 kilometers (2.9 miles)", so kilometers get three sig figs but miles only two...why? Moreover, if they said it was about 2x2x5 km would we be any the wiser? 29th September 2004

Devil's advocate redux - The author has revealed his true aims in an email and as I suspected he was indeed playing devil's advocate and is highly amused by the numerous responses from scientists who posted replies to his diatribe "Why should children have to learn science?" 0/10 and no gold star from me I'm afraid. 28th September 2004

Devil's advocate - I can only assume the person who wrote "Why should children have to learn science?" is simply playing devil's advocate. 27th September 2004

Ctrl-Alt-Del - Just in case you were wondering, I did not invent the three-finger salute for personal computer users. 24th September 2004

Googlewhackblatt redux - The Webmaster at the Ultimate Googlewhackblatt page (Lawrence D’Oliveiro) was perhaps a little miffed by our dallying with his singular words and has now created a whole new set of whacks to replace the ones that we mentioned here. Each "word" is just as exciting as any of the last lot, but in fairness we're not going to repeat them here. Interestingly, not only are Lawrence's new words true whacks (for the time being) but they also beat MS Word's attempts to correct their spelling. What I would like to see from Lawrence are some definitions for his delicious new words. For instance, what might Pyrogyrochroniferation (without the "ation") mean? A rotating incendiary evergreen with a built-in pocketwatch perhaps? Who knows? 22nd September 2004

Life begins at 40 - Proud to announce that Issue 40 of Reactive Reports the chemistry news magazine is now online: elephant sex, glowing artificial atoms, nanowires, and that INChi feeling all get a mention as well as the usual round-up of Star Picks. 22nd September 2004

Combined effort - The first virtual conference on cutting edge technologies in combinatorial chemistry is being held September 20-30 by Swiss company DouglasConnect. Topics covered at the meeting include solid-phase and solution-phase/polymer-assisted synthetic methodologies, diversity-oriented/natural products-like libraries, library design and target libraries, microwave-assisted synthetic methodologies, analytical techniques (high-throughput LC/MS/NMR/ELSD/IR/UV analytical and purification, supercritical fluid separations, fluoro-based separations), and combicheminformatics (combichem software, ADME/Tox/rule-of-5/medchem filters, and data management). http://ecombichem.colayer.net/ 22nd September 2004

Accuracy and precision - In reporting the crash of the Genesis probe, news sites around the world almost all reported the impact speed as estimated to be 193 mph. What relevance is that 3 mph above the 190 or even the 7mph below the 200 mark? Why not just say "about 200mph"? More to the point, I noticed that the ones that quoted the speed in kmh said it was equivalent to 311 kmh (sometimes 310), so where did the precision go? Might it be that the original NASA report said 311 kmh ("more than 300" would be sufficed, but wouldn't look scientific enough to lay readers) and the press office simply converted this value into mph using Google or another online conversion factor (Google's is listed as 1.609344). This has a value of 193.24644078581086455102203133699 (or thereabouts, haha!) so the press release writer simply knocked off all the digits after the point. I reckon that must be it, the over-precision propagated virally as the news spread - it doesn't take a calculator to work that out! 22nd September 2004

Say please - An incredibly polite visitor just hit the sciencebase site via a Google query using the following keywords: "latest invention about chemistry .please". It's not so much the fact that they used "please" as if Google has real people carrying out the search for you, but why did they include that period in front of it? 21st September 2004

In Memoriam - Magnetic personality Jack Crow was remembered at a celebration of his life this week; he died at the beginning of this month aged 65 after a battle against stomach cancer. I reported on some of his major achievements last year in the inaugural issue of Resonants, the NMR magazine. 21st September 2004

Let it fly - One of the better (and still free) non-MS email clients is David Harris' Pegasus Mail. It has gone from strength to strength over the last ten years adding great filtering capabilities and remaining essentially immune to all the viruses and worms that so plague Outlook users. Now, Harris is hoping to get a little financial support to help him maintain development of the program. If you're a user then consider buying the Pegasus Mail manuals, if you're not a user, give this excellent email client a try. It's one the safest and most robust out there (And, before you ask, they didn't pay me to say that!) 20th September 2004

Nodal Noodling - You might wish to check out this interesting blogging site for those with an interest in bioinformatics. 20th September 2004

Experimenting with experiments - If you've heard of the GoMeme you might be interested in this: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. Gybdooe tlil troroomw. 17th September 2004

Ancient life secret - Hits continue to come into this page from people searching for The Ancient Secret of Life 'THE ANTIDOTE'. It's a phrase I've seen a dozen times in recent spam that claims to cure all ills with some panacea the ancients knew and that modern people have forgotten and the spamming company has revived... Load of old tosh. Check out Bad Medicine for some great insights into the nature of ill health and what can and cannot be done about it. 16th September 2004

Enzymes and bases - How low can Cambridge science students sink? The BBC reports that "someone" presumably who took a first year biochemistry class has daubed graffiti in white paint on the road outside the world-famous Cavendish laboratory proclaiming "Phospholipase C" and showing the structure of the DNA base guanine. Is it some kind of protest against biotechnology and genetic modification? Who knows? Regardless, they don't seem to have balanced their equation properly, having failed to account for the phosphate groups! 16th September 2004

Women just don't get it - David Bradley reported for BioMedNet on the how close women in science are getting to smashing those apparent glass ceilings, you can read the full version of the article for the first time on sciencebase. 16th September 2004

Wipe-out - I'm sitting here staring out through what has to be the filthiest sheet of glass in history and there aren't even any seagulls around here. Why, I ask myself have materials scientists not created a double spray in which the first can gets all the sh*t off the window and the second adds a self-cleaning coating, perhaps a titania based substance that exploits incident UV to break down the gunk as it lands. I'm sure I wrote about this years ago in The Guardian, but nothing is yet to surface (pardon the pun) for the home. Do correct me if I'm wrong. Perhaps it's a Windex conspiracy (for legal reasons I have to confess this is 100% unlikely!) 14th September 2004

Pop-up - An intriguing pop-up ad appeared in my browser today from Pfizer, makers of Viagra. It offered me tips (on reducing spam, that is!) Why? Are they suddenly computer experts as well? 14th September 2004

Billions upon billions - When is a billion not a billion? When it's a million millions, of course. In the UK at least, there are plenty of people who will tell you that no way is it 1000 million. Makes you wonder how they cope with the financial pages and any cosmological news that mentions the age of the Universe or the origins of the Earth. At least scientific journals, such as Nature, have themselves defined a billion as 1000 million (just as the Americans always claimed it was). And, if the IUPAC has its way in the long-term Brits will have to spell sulfur with an "f" rather than a "ph". One little victory for English speakers who quote en-uk rather than en-us in their web and rss formating - the international standard spellings for the elements Al and Cs - are aluminium and caesium. 14th September 2004

Homeopipetting - My blog entry on homeopathy yesterday prompted colleague Stephan Logan to remind me that he supplies pipets to schools and other users. On his science education supplies site he mentions that his glass transfer serological pipets "are accurate to 0.1% and are ideal for measuring small volumes for doing chemical titrations and serial dilutions for naturopathic, homeopathic and new age "remedies". He doesn't go quite so far as to claim they could be used as domestic homeopathic kits, that would be homelyopathy, of course. 14th September 2004

All I need is the air that I breathe... - A device that can alert you if the air you're breathing is dangerously polluted may soon be coming to a power pole near you. The pole-mounted sensor is the first of a generation of revolutionary detectors that will keep watch over local air quality for a range of pollutants providing residents with direct feedback on airborne substances that affect their health. What with the UK on the verge of introducing tables of cockroach and bacteriology results for restaurants and cafes it looks like we could soon be living in a risk-free world. Hah! 14th September 2004

I'll be back! - Chemindustry.com has re-launched the former repository of some of David Bradley's chemical words, ChemWeb.com. In its new incarnation, he reports biweekly on the latest chemistry news. You can sign up now at no cost - www.chemweb.com 13th September 2004

Shut up and drive - Using a hands-free phone is just as dangerous as driving with your cellphone, or mobile, stuck to your ear, according to German simulations. So, all those White Van drivers, stockbrokers, and sales reps on the road who simply cannot drive without bending someone's ear had better take extra care. Aah. 13th September 2004

...and speaking of Gaul... - A report on alternative medicine from the Academie Nationale de Medicine says: "Homeopathy is a method dreamed up two centuries ago based on prejudices that were devoid of any foundation". Who ever doubted that? (Apart from the millions of people around the world who claim to have been cured by the principles of infinite dilution? 13th September 2004

By Toutatis! - Asterix and Obelix would be seriously shshi...worried now with the announcement of another asteroid heading right for earth. Toutatis (asteroid 4179), according to http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/asteroids/article_1336_1.asp, is going to buzz the planet on September 29 (St Michael's day) at a mere 1.5m kilometres. Thankfully for the diminutive warriors, who are wont to invoke this name of their Celtic god of war, fertility and health, Toutatis is passing over the southern hemisphere well beyond their small Gaulish village, so there will be little disruption to their skies. 13th September 2004

Straightening Pisa - Thankfully, for anyone who has visited Pisa recently, the Italians have developed their remedial engineering skills considerably over the last few hundred years meaning the infamous tilting tower is now well set at its current angle for at least the next three hundred years or so. Read the latest on undoing the tilt complete with photos by David Bradley in the latest issue of Spotlight. 10th September 2004

Genesis - NASA transcript: "Vertigo we have an impact 2 zero zero , 8 miles" "Copy that...do you have an altitude?" "That's impact Sir, ground level" Tragic. 9th September 2004

Secure in your transaction  - If you're at all worried that a site you're logging on to might be spoofed and potentially harvesting usernames and passwords. Here's a little trick that was posted on the "langalist" recently by a reader with a name like an obscure sexual practice, Todd Beaver... He reckons you can check a site by entering a bogus username and password to log into a suspect site. If you're name is accepted then it's a spoof, and the owners have done nothing more than grab a bogus password, if not, you can be pretty certain the site is the real thing. He adds that even "https:" at the start of a URL is no guarantee these days, but his quick check method can save you all sorts to ID theft issues. 9th September 2004

Rush - Wembley Arena. Lee Lifeson Peart. Since 1974: nuff said. 8th September 2004

Bugs alive! - water is teeming with thousands more microbes than scientists previously thought according to Australian researchers. Best stick to beer, I say. 7th September 2004

Whacks wane - The Personal Genome site anticipates that the word "genomiography" will remain a Googlewhackblatt for a very short time (indeed already 19 hits including this page as of our next Google spidering) and that "phylogenomiography" will be one for much longer. Sorry to disappoint. 7th September 2004 Do misspellings count as google whacks, I wonder - try strorytellers! 14th Sept

Lower Saxons - What is it about teenage angst in Lower Saxony in Germany that makes the students there meddle with the computer systems of others? Today, a teenager admitted hijacking the ebay.de domain although no real harm seems to have been done. More infamously, however, Lower Saxony was the source of the Sasser virus. Antisocial youths around the world tend to posture in the street, daub graffiti and swear in front of older people. There may be a whole sociology PhD in the psyche of the youth of the region for some ambitious student...although probably not one from Lower Saxony, the supervisor would be a fool to allow the student computer access. 6th September 2004

Simply tuberous - Susan Clark's "What's the alternative! in the UK's Sunday Times yesterday mentioned the African potato, which she said is "not a potato but a tuber" and went on to discuss its beta-sitosterol content. Now, I'm not sure what she was getting at - aren't potatoes tubers? So, describing it as not a potato but a tuber is a bit like saying an armchair is not an armchair, but a piece of furniture to sit on! beta-Sitosterol, by the way, seems to be one of those modern cure-almost-alls. The marketing claims benefit against prostate problems including cancer, but obviously sales were flagging so they've also "discovered" benefits in lowering cholesterol...amazing. 6th September 2004

Molecule of the Month - Bristol Uni's Paul May tells me the latest MotM is the first from Poland. It's "ubiquitin", an essential protein found in the cells of plants and animals, and was written by Lukasz and Mariusz Jaremko from Wroclaw University. 3rd September 2004

Erection solution - Someone found the SciObs science blog using the search phrase "Can you dissolve Viagra in water". I suspect the person in question finds it hard to swallow, ahem...great place to find out that kind of information would normally be the Oxford U repository of MSDS. At least that's what I thought, but there is scant information to be found relating to sildenafil citrate to give Viagra its proper name. Meanwhile, simply searching on Viagra solubility turns up dozens of dubious sites but thankfully a handful that mention actual solubility in water as 3.5 milligrams per millilitre, the equivalent of 3.5 g per litre. Of course, it is not recommended that you exceed the maximum dose which is a fraction of this (100mg, I believe) at any one "time". If you were daft enough to take 3.5g of the drug in a litre of water, sexual dysfunction would be the least of your concerns. Anyway, I hope the SciObs visitor comes again so he or she can discover the soluble truth. 3rd September 2004

Chemical happenings at the movies - Latest movie with molecular interest looks to be Chemistry. Of course, I could just possibly wrong. 2nd September 2004

Whacked off - According to the Ultimate Googlewhackblatt Page, words such as Ardupose, Crubbology, Fertangulator, Muffinaceous, and Zapperaic are Googlewhackblatts, unfortunately this is no longer the case. More to the point though it is not possible to "copyright" a single word, although the webmaster might like to register each as an international trademark to protect any claims to exclusivity. I think those words are all now, what is known colloquially as, "googlewhackfuscated". 2nd September 2004

Tasteless headline of the week - from ITV News website: 'Amelie murder: police speak to victim' 2nd September 2004

Marvellous Marvin - My good friend Alex Allardyce of Chemaxon recently emailed my to let me know about the company's latest release of Marvin, which is a collection of Java tools for drawing, displaying and characterizing chemical structures, substructures and reactions. You might be thinking, "Not more chemistry software!" but take a look, Marvin is a little different with a character all of its own. 2nd September 2004

Swish Swiss - Uploaded as a special feature for sciencebase.com, David Bradley's profile of one of the most famous and fruitful research centres in the world - ETH Zurich

Flexible vision - Australian scientists have developed a polymer lens that can be implanted under the cornea making it the first permanent contact lens. Debbie Sweeney of the Vision Cooperative Research Centre says clinical trials will begin within two years, the results will be a site for sore eyes. Read more on truly permanent contact lenses here. 19th August 2004

Adamant about talking machines - Alan Burkitt-Gray is worried that Douglas Adams' nightmare visions are coming true. Posting on the Fleet Street Forum he tells us of standing in the queue for his snaps at Foto Station in Blackfriars when he heard an electronic voice incite him to "Share and enjoy". Turns out it was a Kodak digital photo machine. Alan concedes he is still in the "film age" and so the machine held little interest for him other than to alert him to a whole sector of the community (Kodak equipment developers and marketing execs) who have overlooked a vital constituent of modern literature - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - with it's talking doors, or maybe Kodak is smarter than he thinks and knows that there will be a certain sector of the community who will subliminally feel comforted hearing such an endearing intonation and will turn digital. Or, maybe not. 19th August 2004

Airport cuts - Why does airport security insist on confiscating one's safety razor - didn't Gillette spend the last fifty years or so making these things sooooo safe they cut nothing but bristles on one's chin? We should be told. 16th August 2004

DNAllucination - Could it be true that the late Francis Crick was tripping on LSD when he came up with the idea of the double helix? Surely not...any evidence of this? 15th August 2004

Talking of words - Bizarrely, "sceince" is becoming quite a popular word recently with about 13400 Google hits. On the other hand, the ever popular "Scienec" is still producing well over 4000, but it is "Sience" that wins hands down with almost 81000 hits. If I suggest people should be more accurate in their typing I am bound to get flamed, thankfully this is a website not a useent group. 13th August 2004

More Googlewhackblatts - New Scientist recently destroyed the googlewhackblatt supernumerality by mentioning it in the magazine's excellent Feedback column (it's the only part I read these days). Now, having found a GWB of my own - desynergize - I thought I would have a bash at destroying it. Search Google for this word and you will see, for today only, just one entry, once this page is respiderizationalized, however, there should be two! 13th August 2004

SPIM - Just as I start writing a news article for Bio/Techniques about a new biological microscopy technique called SPIM (Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy), up pops a press release about another form of SPIM (instant messenger spam). Is this a case of simple acronym convergence (viz NMR for nuclear magnetic resonance and Newmont Minahasa Raya; ESR for electron spin resonance and environmental services ratio) or is there something altogether more weird going on in the world of science and technology? How many more synchronous sci-tech acronyms are out there...we should be told. 13th August 2004

SPIN - Sometimes it makes sense to turn a sentence on its head to get at what the writer meant - read the Polio section of an article in The Guardian: "But the risk has always been deemed to outweigh the benefits - until now, when the danger of importing the disease from abroad has virtually disappeared". What are they trying to say? I can guess, but will never be sure. 13th August 2004

Global chemistry - Tony Williams of ACD/Labs tells me that his ChemSketch chemical drawing software is now used in every single country across the globe...but quite bizarrely a mere one in ten users know about the ACD/Dictionary function. This incredibly useful tool carries more than 120,000 structures by name, so rather than having to draw a known molecule you just type in a name and hit the appropriate button and up pops the structure you want. Not only that, but the 2D can become solid with the latest version of the 3D viewer, which cleans up the bonds and such and produces a beautiful print-quality work of molecular art in seconds. If I didn't have words to write, I reckon I'd spend all day just creating molecules. 12th August 2004

Mother burnt as pool cleaning chemicals explode, screamed the Telegraph headline on Monday August 9. A very unfortunate incident...those darned chemicals. Turns out the woman had mixed together two entirely incompatible pool-cleaning agents - stabilised chlorine granules and the oxidising agent calcium hypochlorite - in a bucket (which is inadvisable anyway), what was she thinking? The BioLab UK kit states in three separate areas not to mix the cleaning agents. The woman admits she made a mistake and is quoted as saying "I dread to think what would have happened to my children if they had been carrying the bucket." I suspect the packaging also says something about "keeping the materials out of the reach of children". I feel very sorry for the woman, but you'd think after so many years of chemical scare stories (most of which are unfounded) that she would have been just a little bit wary of handling compounds designed to kill and clean and certainly not even consider letting her kids do the job (they're nine and ten!). This incident will simply add to the growing feelings of public resentment for all things chemical...but it could so easily have been avoided with no chemical knowledge required using less than a mole of common sense. 12th August 2004

Space behind the sofa - John O'Toole of Innova Biosciences writes to warn me that they're back. They're back! Aaaagh nooo! Quick, move the sofa, need plenty of room behind it. 11th August 2004

Lighten up and have a drink (of water) - Pharmaceuticals in the water supply is nothing new, they were mentioned in a feature article for The Alchemist in April 1998 by David Bradley

and probably by others even before that. Reporting in the UK by The Observer and others, however, would suggest this is the latest great British health scare. One curious aspect of the reports on Prozac is the claim that 24 million prescriptions for the drug each year are filled in the UK. This is astounding and wrong. The figure refers to all antidepressants not just Prozac, it also masks the fact that some people are on more than one antidepressant at a time, and, more to the point, says nothing about how many of those prescriptions are repeats for the same people taking antidepressants long-term. So, how many of us are depressed? Certainly not the 24 million of the 60 million British population that The Observer alludes to. The equivalent figures for the US are 142m prescriptions for about 300m population. It seems there will always be lies, damned lies, and statistics. 11th August 2004

Making it stick - Scripps scientist K Barry Sharpless is famous for his eponymous reaction, for his invention of "click chemistry" and for being a Nobel Chemist. One of the materials he and his team have produced are glues based on dendrimers that are stronger than any glue you can buy. Speaking at a recent Royal Society meeting he told the audience how he had used the glue to stick two pieces of copper together and how Arnold Schwarzenegger visiting the Institute had been unable to pull them apart. Not surprisingly, he promised Sharpless, that he would be back. 10th August 2004

Religious chemistry - It's not every day that a science journalist will admit to an error, but I spotted a typo in an article in the Resonants NMR webzine, that I thought I'd share - Apparently, it is claimed that "Japanese researchers have used carbon-13 NMR to help clarify the nature of the salvation properties of supercritical carbon dioxide" Classic. The National Academies Press also seems to have fallen by the wayside typographically too: "...supercritical water acts as a nonpolar fluid. Its salvation properties resemble those of a low-polaritr (sic) organic fluid..." A bad case of OCR on their part, I'd suggest, or maybe supercritical water really can dissolve sins too! 10th August 2004

Social assistance - Much research in the social sciences has been conducted using paper-and-pencil questionnaires or laboratory experiments. The ubiquity of the internet means things are changing. Read on... 9th August 2004

Chemical assistance - Latest news just in...the Higher Education Funding Council for England has earmarked almost a million pounds for a project through which teenagers will be able to participate in projects that stress the importance of chemical sciences in their everyday lives. Teenagers and chemicals, what ever are they thinking...? 9th August 2004

Athletic support at a future Olympic Games - Ever wondered where technology is taking the sporting experience? David Bradley peers into the technological crystal ball and sees turbulators, intelligent molecules, and democratic refereeing. 5th August 2004

Shedding light - University of Leicester astronomer Darren Baskill doesn't want to see the light and has turned to the web to help him raise awareness of the problem of nocturnal illumination. His Campaign for Dark Skies aims to enlighten us to the problem of light pollution filling our night skies and blocking our view of everything that twinkles. Light from distant celestial bodies takes hundreds, thousands or millions of years to reach our eyes, Baskill proclaims, it's a pity to lose sight of it on the last millisecond of its journey. 5th August 2004

Medicinal Beginnings - Read David Bradley's latest interview with a bioscientist - Geoffrey Smith FRS, Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow, in the Department of Virology at Imperial College, London in BioTechniques. (PDF 76kb) 4th August 2004

Pass the blanky - If religion is the opium of the masses then how come The New York Times describes "the euphoric haze of heroin" as like being wrapped in God's warmest blanket. 4th August 2004

The Nano State - Is Scott Mize simply heading for the small time as he takes on the mantle of head of the Foresight Institute, which this week published a press release announcing putatively the possibility of a potential desktop nanofactory? We'll believe it when we see it. 3rd August 2004

Elemental Discoveries - I've added a timeline for the discovery dates of the chemical elements, there are one or two discrepancies between the sources I've used, so please get in touch if you have a definitive source 3rd August 2004

The Antidote - I shouldn't give them the time of day really (and I'm not linking to them out of spite) but, the latest life-enhancing spam reads as follows: The Ancient Secret of Life 'THE ANTIDOTE' Kills ALL known deadly Viruses & Bacteria in the body that keep diseases, namely: Influenza, SARS, Cancer, HIV etc. etc. active. A disease must be made DORMANT to stop infection. 'The ANTIDOTE' is the answer. Free shipping & 30-day money back guarantee We are the only company in the world who have developed and enhanced this product for sale. Yeah, right! I'll have two jars, please... 2nd August 2004

Crick RIP - Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, died today in San Diego aged 88. The British-born scientist had suffered colon cancer. His counterpart in the famous WC pairing, James Watson, told the BBC that Francis would be "sorely missed." 29 July 2004

Search Puzzle - Someone found my website when they typed the following into Yahoo! - "paper making using rotten log of papaya". If anyone has any clue as to what they were actually after, please do let me know. Meanwhile, you might like to check out Indigo Instruments for their cellulose molecular model in Molymod or Orbit format 28 July 2004

Looking for a science writer? - Check out David Bradley's resume and online science news publications get get in touch if you're after a science-trained writer who covers chemical and related sciences. 29 July 2004

The blob is dead, long live the blub - DNA analysis has finally laid to rest the mystery of the blob, enormous entities spotted on shorelines around the world since at least the nineteenth century. No giant ship-crushing octupuses these, no terrific creature from the deep. Just a load of old blubber. 28 July 2004

Balls to Viagra! - The man who brought us Viagra, Simon Campbell, has taken over from the man who brought us Buckyballs, Sir Harry Kroto, as President of the RSC. 28 July 2004

OpenAccess - Independent organic chemist Darren Rhodes asks an intriguing question on the CHMINF-L discussion group: "Is there any evidence, yet, that papers printed under the Open Access sytem (rather than the closed access system) are superior?" Logically, he says, they should be superior. "Under Open Access, if a researcher has a finite amount of grant money he would publish two or more papers' worth of research in one paper thus increasing the value of the paper. Under the closed access system, papers are still of high quality, but the value of the paper may be diluted over two or more papers" Discuss. 26 July 2004

Scientific discoveries- How does one decide on scientific precedence? If a research team publishes their results one month in, let's say for the sake of argument, Science, and just six months later, a second team publishes the same findings independently in Nature with an equivalent gap between their submitted and accepted dates, then who should get the credit? Both teams or team 1? If you're second to reach the peak of the mountain, then surely the first guy is the winner, even if you were unaware she was climbing...your thoughts on this contentious issue are welcome so drop me a line. 26 July 2004

Glow sticks - I found an answer to a vexing question about those trendy glow stick bracelets that my kids insist on sticking in the freezer when they get back from a school disco, claiming that it will "make them work again". Obviously, there's no chemistry going on that could be reversed by freezing them, but the cold does, according to one manufacturer make the reaction slow significantly so that the bracelet will glow again when plunged into hot water the following day. 26 July 2004

Chemistyr - What is chemistyr, is it some new molecular force? No! It's a classic typo to be found on web pages the world over from the EPA to IUPAC 22 July 2004

Elemental - For those who haven't found it yet (despite the fact it's been online for at least a decade - THE periodic table on the web 22 July 2004

Yo! Robot - Astro blogger David Hitt, lays down the robot law according to Isaac Hayesimov! 22 July 2004

Sink or swim - Our local volunteer-run swimming pool is struggling to stay afloat, thanks to draconian regulations, poor weather and a lack of people interested in helping out and even getting paid to do so. Thankfully, there are a small band of volunteers trying to keep it going, some support from a few local organisations and a couple of qualified lifeguards who have dived in to assist. But, at a time when fitness is at the top of the agenda, we're drowning in red tape! 20 July 2004

Safe from Who? - Thank goodness I just learned from Guy Clapperton's website that the BBC is not going to resurrect The Daleks in the new series of Doctor Who, some of you will feel let down, but personally, I'm rather relieved as there's no space behind the sofa in my living room... 20 July 2004

It's fun to be at the E.D.T.A. - and you thought chemistry was boring? Try singing the EDTA song, and don't forget to do all the actions. Ligands, there’s no need to feel down... 19 July 2004

Supernumerality - You wouldn't expect such a word to be a googlewhackblatt would you? Well, according to New Scientist magazine it is, or, at least it was until they mentioned it on the web in their Feedback section, instantly destroying its uniqueness the second Google spidered their site. And, now that I've blogged it there should be three entries in Google for the word. Indeed, Feedback suggests someone will start a website where you can send your googlewhackblatts - we're happy to act as a repository and will publish the most unusual scientifically related ones once we have a dozen or so in hand. Send your Googlewhackblatts now. 16 July 2004

Hawking Wrong - Stephen Hawking was wrong about black holes, according to Stephen Hawking. He's set to tell a Dublin conference that his 30-year argument that a black hole destroys everything, that enters it is simply not true. His latest studies will help solve a paradox but could cost Hawking an encyclopaedia in a long-standing bet with Caltech scientists Kip Thorne and John Preskill. New Scientist has the full spin on Hawking's radiative speech. 15 July 2004

Quest - Now in soft cover - Charles Pasternak's epic exploration of the essence of humanity tracing life on earth from primitive cells to modern-day science.  13 July 2004

Centenarian -  Scientists are wont to dedicate their papers to peers in their field on the occasion of their birthday, often a 70th or even 80th. Ulrich Kutschera of Universität Kassel and Cornell's Karl Niklas dedicated their recent paper on evolution to Prof. Dr. Dr. hc mult. Ernst Mayr on the occasion of his 100th birthday, proving once again just how long-lived scientists can be. At that age he could be a great-great-great-supervisor. 9 July 2004

Pedantic as "el"- Ray Girvan reports on the so-called flab-jab in the Apothecary's Drawer Weblog (is it too incestuous to blog a blog, by the way?). I checked out the company site where this miracle compound is touted and in their FAQ, they list the compound in question as "Phosphatidycholine". Curious, I thought, so I did a quick PubMed search on the term, suspecting something amiss and found 65 entries. But raising a little l to make "Phosphatidylcholine" and I found 20835 PubMed entries. Now, getting your commas and apostrophes confused is one thing, but the flabby jabbers really ought to make sure they get the "el" back in there. Apparently, this compound not only relieves one of a double chin with a mere two jabs and reduces "cellulite" (whatever the "el" that's supposed to be) but also phosphatidylcholine, aka lecithin, can be used to treat depression. Heaven knows what happens if you're depressed about your cellulite and go for both treatments. 8 July 2004

Balls? On page 41 (or thereabouts) of "celebrity" British cook Hugh Fearnley-Wittingthingystall he refers to "fries" as another name for the testicles of certain animals, including pigs, sheep and cows. Cows testicles, well I'll be blowed! 8 July 2004

Watching?- Does this title of a recent press release on Eurekalert strike anyone else as rather odd? "Parental supervision may reduce the risk for certain sexually transmitted diseases in adolescents" 8 July 2004

What a posh Doc- The British Medical Association is worried that the UK's GPs are too posh to be to representative of the public they serve. According to Yahoo UK News there are 'Too many middle class doctors' But, isn't being in a profession half the definition of being middle class, anyway? A recruitment drive to get more working class people into the medical profession while the supposed posh lot all retrain as plumbers will simply shift the balance. As Roland White put it in the Sunday Times, "Doctors are middle class by sociological definition. By the time they leave medical school, they'll be enjoying 'chunky marmalade' and BBC2' with the rest of them. These days that would be BBC4! 7 July 2004


Sunshine - What a coincidence a report from the Health Research Forum confirms my suspicions re the connection between sun and health. We're publishing their press release, originally sourced from AlphaGalileo in this item sunshine 6 July 2004

All thunked out - Seattle-based computer games tester Lion Kimbro wrote down his every thought for three months and has now published a free net book that won't cost you a penny for his thoughts. This was no idle Pepys diary affair, however, he literally wrote down every single thought to the point where the rest of his life was put on hold. For those of us chained to a PC, PDA, or cellphone, this sounds like pure luxury - Kimbro was immersed only in his thoughts after all - the rest of us have to put up with hundreds of emails, text messages, blogs(!) and the like. Other people's thoughts, in other words. It would be nice just to sit back and think one's own for a while. Maybe not three months, though...got to go, new mail just arrived! July 2004

Once bitten, twice bitten - According the latest research, it's not only those who taste sweet who get bitten by all kinds of bugs at this time of year, it's mainly those who don't mask their BO with naturally secreted chemical repellents. Read the full story in Issue 38 of Reactive Reports June 2004

Bling me sunshine - Wouldn't it be ironic if getting a decent suntan turned out to be the best thing you could do for your body? After years of often contradictory evidence, it is about time the truth were known. I remember writing a news story for Chemistry and Industry about the possible carcinogenic effects of sun creams in March 1997, but there is mounting evidence that Britain, at least, is unlikely to see a skin-cancer epidemic caused by the Sun. June 2004

International instruments -  Stephan Logan of Canadian scientific equipment company Indigo Instruments tells me he just had a great example of international networking. An order came in for a dozen magnifying glasses (Made in China) from the French assistant to the New York architect Daniel Libeskind who designed the twin towers replacement. And, what did he need these Chinese magnifying glasses for? To read the small-print version of the two-volume Oxford English Dictionary of course! June 23, 2004

Life of Pi - Bob Michaelson of Northwestern University Library recounted an interesting Feynman anecdote on the CHMINF-l discussion group recently: "After discussing random processes, Feynman asked what the odds would be if someone offered to bet that at the hundred-millionth digit pi went ...98765... (or something like that). The chemist started to mumble, "well, of course pi is a random number, so the a priori probability would be, um, ..." and Feyman interrupted to say - "don't forget, the s.o.b. might have calculated it!" June 23, 2004

In reverse - onelook.com provides access through a single search box to hundreds of dictionaries at once. Now, they've added a reverse dictionary - type in a concept or phrase and the system spits back words for which your concept might be the definition, perfect for those on the tip of your tongue moments. May 20, 2004.

PR - sciencebase.com is rather proud of its Google page rank which stands at an 8/10 (a PR8). But far more important are rumours circulating on the web that the Spinal Tap site has a PR11. May 11, 2004.

Charting chemical space - The number of chemicals that has been synthesized pales into insignificance compared with the number that can theoretically be created. New synthetic techniques are emerging from chemical laboratories to find ways of making molecules that show desirable properties. Nature (free access), May 5, 2004.
 

NMR Microscope - A new NMR microscope has been developed by an Oxford team that will allow medics to zoom in on internal organs at an unprecedented magnification factor of up to around 100 times. Resonants - Issue 8 (free access), May 4, 2004.

Spintronics - US researchers have uncovered important clues about the transport and magnetic behaviour of Fe1-yCoySi and Fe1-xMnx Si, two members of the transition metal monosilicide family that share crystal structures. X-factors - Issue 7 (free access), May 4, 2004.

Earthballs and boletes - High-resolution electrospray ionization MS, and UV/Vis, and various flavours of NMR spectroscopy have been used to reveal the chemical structures of two novel yellow pigments both found in separate species of fungi. Spectral Lines- Issue 34 (free access), May 4, 2004.

An interview with Zhu Chen - Zhu Chen's biomedical research with arsenic compounds has revolutionised the treatment of one form of cancer read David Bradley's interview in PNAS (subscription required), May 4, 2004.

PS2 secrets revealed by X-rays - Water seems like the perfect energy source, packed, as it is, with two atoms of hydrogen per molecule. Reactive Reports - Issue 37, May 4, 2004.

Where's the F in fluorine? - Shy chemicals offer a new solution for green chemistry - read how the F in molecules work, in Science magazine (subscription required), updated May 4, 2004