Sciencebase Science Blog Archive

Green with envy

in his New Scientist feature article on SCFs entitled Solvents get the Big Squeeze. The article covered a number of applications of SCFs, ranging from the decaffeination of coffee to the development of new reactions and polymerisation techniques. Crucially to this project, it also included M. Poliakoff's semi-humorous vision of SCF chemistry in the future as being as simple as operating a drinks vending machine. The chemist will simply press a button and the machine will add the appropriate reagents to the supercritical CO2 and pump the mixture into the reactor. This frivolous statement caught the eye of Professor Tom Swan OBE, owner of the fine chemicals manufacturer, Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd., who recognised the potential that such dial a chemical technology could bring to his business. He was also attracted by scCO2 as a cleaner solvent because, at that time, it was feared that all chlorinated solvents might be banned. He contacted Nottingham, nine months of discussions began, and a collaboration was set up." Monday March 3.

Sweat suppression

Might we be on the verge of a new treatment for pre-menstrual syndrome based on eau d'armpit or a new approach to fertility? US research suggests it is a possibility. http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/science/story/0,12450,894028,00.html Thursday February 13.

Spicy burgers

Check out how burgers could be made healthier: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/science/story/0,12450,884676,00.html Thursday January 30.

Mikey Marsupial

Disney's murine male slipped out of the homeland to do an interview on the tense subject of copyright, turned out to be Bruce Marsupial in the end.  http://www.reason.com/links/links011703.shtml Tuesday January 21.

GM debate

Fields of the future - GM Crops - A one-day conference, 13th January 2003. More information from The Scientific Alliance where you can read David Bradley's independent report on the meeting. Tuesday January 7.

Honour roll

Two of DB's recent interviewees were made Knights by QEII in the UK's New Year Honours - Cambridge University's Sir Alan Fersht and Sir Dave King Monday January 6.

Be of good cheer, it's that time of year

The Chemistry of Christmas in today's Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/science/story/0,12450,862251,00.html Thursday December 19.

Not just for kissing

Mistletoe ain't just for kissing under. Find out more in today's Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/science/story/0,12450,857922,00.html Thursday December 12.

Entitled

What to make of "From molecular chemistry to supramolecular chemistry to superdupermolecular chemistry." by Nicholas Turro (Chemical Communications, DOI: 10.1039/b205552j). Monday December 2.

Ten, ten

There are 10 types of people in the world- Those who understand binary, and those who don't. Tuesday November 26.

New Elemental Discoveries

Find out more on the latest version of the periodic table periodically. Friday November 1.

Look around you

What do you see? A tree. A weather-vane. A discarded lollipop-wrapper. A traffic shop. All of these things, and any other things you may care to mention, have one thing in common. What is it?
SCIENCE! SCIENCE stands for Super-Corroborative Information on Everything and Nothing in the Cosmos and Earth. That's a pretty wide-ranging subject, I'm sure you'll agree! Friday November 1.

Bleach

"...[the book] is not a guide for the novice green chemist. But it does show that there is more to green chemistry than merely using hydrogen peroxide to bleach your waste water so that people do not notice when you pour it into a river." Martyn Poliakoff and Peter Licence in Nature, 31 October on the Handbook of Green Chemistry and Technology Thursday October 31.

Insects tune out

It happened a million years ago on a journey from Europe to Asia, but what if it were to happen on a space colony and leave our descendants starving for want of a slice of bread? What could be such a blight on humanity? http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,9865,834776,00.html
Tuesday November 12

All appointments canceled

The WISDOM (women's international study of long duration oestrogen after menopause) study, which has so far cost $15.5m has been terminated prematurely because of slow progress. The WISDOM trial hoped to reveal the long-term effects of estrogen combined with progestogen and of estrogen alone on the incidence of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, dementia, and osteoporosis. BMJ. Monday November 4.

Death loophole

GP Harold Shipman killed at least 215 of his patients in the worst serial killer case Britain has seen. He certified the deaths himself and so avoided referring them to the coroner for post mortem examination. He did so despite the apparent previous good health of his elderly and middle-aged female patients. New rules touted by High Court judge Dame Janet Smith heading the inquiry into the Shipman case will aim to ensure that all unexpected deaths must be reported to the coroner for full investigation. BMJ. Monday October 28. 2002

Smallpox for healthcare

Amendments to the EU's proposed legislation on tobacco advertising are to be made, removing much of the substance of the new laws. Efforts by the EU to make tobacco less attractive by restricting the types of advertising companies can use could fail because of a small but influential group of Members of the European Parliament. The legislation will not be applied to "indirect" advertising, such as radio broadcasts across member state borders. BMJ. Friday October 18.

Smallpox for healthcare

Key professionals in England are to be vaccinated against the lethal pathogen smallpox in an effort to improve first line defences against the deliberate release of the virus. Exactly who is to receive the vaccine is yet to be decided but the Chief Medical Officer reiterated that there would be no mass vaccination of the public. There are post-vaccination complications, such as secondary infections, in 15 per million vaccinated. BMJ. Friday October 18.

International medical opposition

UK health and social care regulators are opposing new EU rules that would recognize professional qualifications internationally allowing doctors, midwives, pharmacists, nurses, even architects, and others to work anywhere in the EU. The General Medical Council worries that such freedom would put patient safety at severe risk and prevent regulators from taking action against malpractice. BMJ. Monday October 14.

Gene genie

A boy at the Necker Hospital, in Paris, undergoing gene therapy for an immune disorder (SCID) developed has leukaemia leading to the trial being suspended. In response, the UK Department of Health's gene therapy advisory committee (GTAC) has recommended additional measures be applied to protect patients. Only two UK trials have been identified as being related to the Parisian case. BMJ. Monday October 14.

Bull!

Male elephants become sexually aroused in "a highly visible, dramatic fashion" says Glenn Prestwich of the University of Utah who has discovered the pathway by which the female's sex attractant gets from her urine to the male's sensory organ. Read more in today's Guardian. Thursday October 10.

European truce

The European Union (EU) Council of Science Ministers has finally approved the Sixth Framework Research Programme with a one year moratorium on stem-cell research funding. The 6th Framework will fund science to the tune of E17·5 billion over the next five years but will exclude stem cell research until the end of 2003. The Council has now learned a lesson in that its earlier unwritten agreement with the European Parliament was essentially thrown out in the ensuing arguments. http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol360/iss9339/full/llan.360.9339.news.22680.2 Monday October 7.

Going Dutch

A Dutch court heard how Dr H J Gelmers made 438 false case record forms while working with German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim as part of the second European stroke prevention study. Gelmers fabricated patient records and failed to inform genuine patients or their general practitioner that they were subjects in the study. He also evaded tax on the $266 000 he earned from the "research". BMJ. Monday October 7.

Baffle

According to Dr Allan Cumming, associate dean of teaching at the University of Edinburgh, speaking in the BMJ today, "...there is a risk that students who learn to communicate superbly are deficient in other respects that may not be detected." Isn't that just another way of saying "if they've got the gift of the gab they can baffle with bullshit"? Friday September 27.

Citebase

Unique sighting - a publisher concerned for its readers' health. http://citebase.eprints.org publishes, among other things, citation statistics and impact factors for research papers. On their homepage they include an "Impact Health Warning" aimed at authors. It rather tersely expresses concern for the pyschological wellbeing of researchers visiting the site, saying: "Please do not despair if your papers fail to appear or have few or no citations". They could have gone further and provided
the number for the Samaritans counselling service in case there were some poor unfortunate scientist who nobody was citing at all. Everyone say aah. Friday September 20. 2002

Seg end

"Segedunum, which is what the Romans called Wallsend, doesn't receive publicity. Its director doesn't call it 'an art factory' or even 'an archaeological factory'. But for the purposes of arousing thought and inducing revelations of historical understanding, no conceptual art - at least none in the Baltic - can touch it," Sp!ked  Friday, September 13.

...and stretch

"Yoga is one of the twenty four words that are the same in every language," PG Friday, September 13.

Turn up the signal...

...wipe out the noise. PG Friday, September 13.

1+0

There are 10 types of people in the world; those who understand binary, and those who don't. Friday, September 13.

Speaking of bits

Check out David Bradley's digital DNA story on ScienceNow and find out Why DNA Is Spelled ATGC. Friday, September 13.

Amina Lawal must not face death by stoning

Visit the Amnesty International site to find out how to take action: Amnesty International Thursday, September 12.

Roger Bobbit

New Scientist reports this week that tissue engineering has been used to create major penile components for several rabbits who could use their reconstructed organs to mate. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992781. Obviously, very serious research aimed at helping men who have been injured or have deformities...but one cannot help wondering whether those rabbits really needed any assistance in the mating game. Thursday, September 12.

Peace

In memory. Wednesday, September 11.

Council of fraud

Mohammed Naeem Shaukat is accused of professional misconduct and of misleading his research co-authors in reporting the outcomes of heart patients at Leicester Royal Infirmary of Indian origin. Shaukat claimed that these patients fared dramatically worse after a first heart attack Shaukut and co-workers subsequently withdrew the paper when discrepancies in the results came to light. He denies the charges of dishonesty and breach of scientific integrity. BMJ. Monday, September 9.

Hanging by the short and curlies

Tiny spirals of the semiconductor cadmium sulfide could form the basis of new nanodevices, according to US researchers, Read on in the September issue of Reactive Reports. Thursday, September 4.

Your ibogaine

There is not much in the plant world that people have not sniffed, snorted, smoked, rubbed in, injected or attempted to get inside their bodies in other ways in the hope of eliciting someone kind of magical response. The well-known plants that gave a positive result in the primitive tests - the coca plant, poppies, marijuana, tobacco, betel trees, coffee beans - have since grown infamous leaving the air heavy with their tragic scent in so many places. Molecule of the Month - ibogaine. Wednesday, September 3.

Fluorous to the fore

Creating vast libraries of compounds is all very well provided there is a straightforward and inexpensive means to separate each product in pure form for further investigation — fluorous chemistry to the rescue - Compound Interest Wednesday, September 3.

Leader

Raymond Dwek took time out from his busy schedule to talk with David Bradley on behalf of ChemWeb. He is Head of the Department of Biochemistry at Oxford, one of the largest in the western world and Director of the Glycobiology Institute, which is part of the Department. But, he has created a managerial structure that still allows him time for himself. "I believe in a management approach that empowers people and I want to receive information in return — it's a two-way flow," he told us. Read on: http://www.chemweb.com/alchem/articles/1027071236255.html and don't forget you'll need your ChemWeb username. Wednesday, August 28.

Elemental playthings

Looking for a good time? Well, just for the elemental discoverers among you, try these element flash cards, elemental hangman, and crossword puzzles from http://education.jlab.org/indexpages/elementgames.html Tuesday, August 27.

This is how I feel...

Mixed allusions to Alanis Morissette and Natalie Imbruglia can be found in the latest news item on chemweb.com from David Bradley entitled - Jagged Little Pill. (You'll need your ChemWeb username, but don't worry it's free to register and well worth it even just for this article! Thursday, August 15.

Pre-order your atoms and elements

You can pre-order you copy of David Bradley's latest book Atoms and Elements from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com Wednesday, August 14.

Slim boy fat

All this over eating they talk about on weight-training sites...they're all gonna die young...they reckon rats on low-calorie diets live twice as long as those stuffing their faces as much as they like, so those guys might be big and "bulked up" but all that means is it'll cost their families more for the coffin. Pah! Wednesday, August 14.

What are you compensating for?

New legislation in Germany means that drug manufacturers will now have to prove that their drug did not cause an adverse drug reaction in a patient claiming compensation. Until now, the onus had been on the patient to prove their symptoms were an ADR. From next year, compensation limits will be raised from E500 000 to E600 000 for individuals and by E20m to E120m for group claims. http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol360/iss9331/full/llan.360.9331.news.22089.4 Monday, August 12.

Rash act

In 1984, US multinational company Union Carbide caused the death of 22000 people in Bhopal after a gas leak from its plant. Compensation of US$490 million was paid in 1989 but campaigners want to establish criminal liability against the company. The extradition of Anderson has been called for but the government now wants the charges against him to be changed. Activists now on hunger strike are said to feel betrayed. http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol360/iss9327/full/llan.360.9327.news.21757.1 Friday, August 9.

True blue

The Chinese and Egyptians turned to chemistry to create their vivid blue hues, writes David Bradley in The Guardian today. This article is available for syndication through Featurewell. Thursday, August 1. 2002

Job loss

A top physicist has lost his job in the aftermath of the now-discredited discovery of elements 116 and 118 - elemental undiscoveries. Wednesday, July 31.

Wet water theorist

"One of the great things about this business is that there really is no such thing as a normal day. Every day is different and unique in its own way with new discoveries and new questions arising constantly," Mark Tuckerman, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Mathematics at New York University, talking with David Bradley on ChemWeb.com. Tuesday, July 30.

A load of Balearics

A friend who likes to drink tomato juice, something to do with protecting his prostate with all that red lycopene, reckons he got bit by mosquitoes far less than usual this year while  holidaying in the Balearics...so it came as no real surprise to see a research paper on how an extract from tomatoes might be repellent to mosquitoes. Wednesday, July 24.

A Brief History...

If you happen to have read a Brief History of Science, you may have spotted the not deliberate mistake in the credits where David Bradley Science Writer became David Bailey Photographer for a brief moment of time... Tuesday, July 23.

Not another bloody virus

Watch out there's yet another virus doing the rounds. The Amish Virus works on the honour system, you have to delete half the files from your hard drive yourself and then tell everyone in your address book to do the same. The Amish co-religionists - the Mennonites - Bucknell U's John Cooper tells us, do allow electricity, unlike the Amish who may only have it to their barns, although he's unsure as to whether the Mennonites have computers. So, be wary, just in case. Wednesday, July 17.

Numero uno

We've no idea when it reached this slot, but Elemental Discoveries is ranked Number One in Google's directory of chemistry journals and features in the top eight of Yahoo's most popular chemistry sites. Tuesday, July 16.

Rash negligence

The Indian government is hoping to reducing the charges against former Union Carbide boss Warren Anderson from "culpable homicide" to a "rash and negligent act". In 1984, US multinational company Union Carbide caused the death of 22000 people in Bhopal after a gas leak from its plant. Compensation of US$490 million was paid in 1989 but campaigners want to establish criminal liability against the company. The extradition of Anderson has been called for but the government now wants the charges against him to be changed. Activists now on hunger strike are said to feel betrayed. Read the full story in The Lancet. Tuesday, July 16.

Oestrogen

Weird that oestrogens in the form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should be causing so much concern for companies while oestrogenics are causing so much concern for companies...register for free with alchemist.chemweb.com to read more. Thursday, July 11.

Too shy shy

We suffer more and more from disease, at least according to drug-company hype. That's the claim of a senior executive reported in the BMJ (http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7342/867). Managing Director of Roche Australia, Fred Nadjarian believes, "the marketing people always beat [hype] these things up." He cites social phobia, a disorder Roche and other companies hope to treat. Nadjarian says social phobia cannot be as common as marketing types suggest because he saw very little response to a call for volunteers in clinical trials. But, isn't there an intrinsic flaw in Nadjarian's argument? Surely, those who suffer this debilitating disorder of social phobia are the least likely people to step forward and volunteer for clinical trials. Tuesday, July 9. 2002

Mutant spawn

Marauding hordes of mutant frogs with extra legs may sound like the opening scene of a low- budget sci-fi movie, but biologists are seeing more and more of these deformed creatures. Check out David Bradley's feature in The Grauniad. Thursday, July 4.

Emotion detector

Science can now measure "memory", "emotional stability", and even "energy level" down to a single percentage point, at least according to a recent item of "spam" from the Opt-In America Mailing List. Their product offers a percentage improvement in just about everything you would want to improve. 82% "Body Fat Loss", 61% "Wrinkle Reduction", 88% stronger muscles, and a 75% boost in "Sexual Potency" are possible. This remarkable panacea has apparently featured on CBS, CNN, Oprah and in the New England Journal of Medicine although whether the reports were positive the missive doesn't say. I do like the sound of a guaranteed 84% improvement in "Energy Level" and "Emotional Stability" (67%). You need it just to cope with all the spam. Wednesday, July 3.

Ashes to ashes

Forget public health warnings that try to dissuade smokers from imbibing of their South American weedy products. Why not try - "This product contains fibrous, reconstituted cellulose hydrate microfibrils". Or, perhaps, "Cigarettes contain at least 99.9999% empty space." Alternatively, smokers may ultimately worry that "This product severely distorts space and time in its locality...and the physical length of cigarettes is determined by its velocity relative to the consumer." Monday, July 1.

Lager than life

A spam-mail came in this morning offering the rather desirable possibility of "firmer, lager breasts". I wonder whether the next one will offer a "bigger beer belly" to go with them? Of course, with all these hoppy products one can only expect brewer's droop, so the one after that will no doubt be for herbal  Viagara (sic). Thursday, June 27.

Rubbish

Spotted something very strange and seemingly contradictory on a roll of swing-bin liners. They claim in their very 'worthy' Environment Information section that the bags 'are made from 60% recycled material'. Very commendable you might think. It goes on, 'and therefore help reduce the amount of waste which is landfilled.' Now is it just more is that rather an odd claim to make about a bin liner " helps cut down on landfill"? What a bin bag does, of course, is encourage us to discard our waste in one place...rather than separating out kitchen waste, cans, bottles etc for recycling. Stil, that's marketing for you. Tuesday, June 25.

Apples and pears

Take a look at the AOL health pages (keyword HEALTH). There is a feast of information there for even the most ardent hypochondriac. Best of all are the so-called fitness calculators, which allow you to estimate health risk factors. For instance, you can tap in your weight, height and age and get a reading for your 'body mass index', perfect for pigeon-holing oneself into a particular category of healthiness. There is also a body fat percentage calculator that saves you the embarrassment of asking your GP to pinch your inches! Perhaps the most intriguing, though, is the waist-to-hip assessor. You enter your hip and waist measurements together with your gender and the calculator works out your shape - apple or pear. This then helps you decide if one more doughnut won't do any harm or whether you had better dip into the muesli instead. The applet makes a rather interesting decision about your shape, if you happen to be more beanpole than fruit and veg and have a waist measurement that is the same as your hips. ''A healthy waist to hip ratio for men is about 1.0. Yours is 1.00, which shows that you tend to be a "pear": the shape associated with lower risks of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke.'' It claims. What I'd like to know is where AOL finds these straight up and down pears with a 'hip' to 'waist' ratio of 1.00. Friday, June 21.

When the sh*t hits the fan

The smelly stuff really did hit the fan for Agence Presse France yesterday when they were banned from using the press release website AlphaGalileo.org for one month. Their crime? They broke the IOP's embargo on an intrigung news item about The physics of muck spreading. Thursday, June 20.

I bleed for you

Probably the most puzzling and bizarre product warning in ages was seen on the info sheet accompanying a friend's wife's contraceptive pill. There are two sides of A4 on thrombosis risk statistics, side-effects such as headache, sore breasts, weight gain, and depression and health warnings on the incidence of cancer in users. Fair enough. But, it's the overdosage symptoms that are worrying - 'Overdosage may cause nausea, vomiting, and in females, withdrawal bleeding.' So, if a man were to overdose on this pill he'd be okay apart from the bleeding. Thank goodness!!! Wednesday, June 19.

Rested

In case you'd been worried The SciObserver has been taking a well-earned (that's what he tells us) break in the Balearics, and if you've ever had broken Balearics you'll know where he's coming from. Normal service will be resumed ASAP. Monday, June 17.

Peddling magnets

There are those devices you simply put in your car's fuel tank and they help boost fuel economy, there are those that allow you to run your washing machine without detergent and the most well-known magnetic water softeners, that promise no more furred up central-heating systems and a limescale-free kettle. Always being somewhat sceptical about the whole thing, we did a little research on the Web and discovered Stephen Lower's site at the Simon Fraser University in Canada. Lower is Associate Professor of Chemistry there and has made it his mission to debunk the pseudoscience peddled by manufacturers of what he calls aquascams. Anyway, if they did work surely we'd all have had a magnetic water softener for decades. Monday, June 10.

I am a mole and I live in a...

Heard on BBC Radio recently. In an interview with a professional mole-catcher, the interviewer asked what the catcher did with the moles he caught. 'I put them on the compost,' was his answer. To which the interviewer requested a qualification: 'Do they like the warmth in there, then?' Friday, June 7.

Spit spot

We had to resort to calling in an expert friend to try and sort out some networking problems t'other day. Basically, the laptop wouldn't share with the others. After a dozen or so re-boots (no Windows reinstallations just yet) a look of horror came across our friend's face while staring intently at the laptop screen. A tiny magnified area had appeared near the bottom left-hand corner...
  'Virus,' was all he said.
'Shit!' was all we said. After five minutes the magnified area hadn't changed nor had any brashly coloured messages appeared on the screen claiming the hard drive had been wiped.
  Turned out it was a magnified area alright, magnified by a drop of spittle! Oh, well cannot be an expert in bodily fluids and computer viruses. Thursday, June 6.

Formulaic wit

Spotted some rather intriguing goblets in an artsy-fartsy shop in a Suffolk gift shop during the holiday weekend. Etched on each goblet was the chemical formula for water - H2O. An amusing twist might have been to have EtOH on them instead. The shopkeeper laughed but then asked if we worked for a funeral director. Surely the shopkeeper should have known that HCHO is the formula for formaldehyde not EtOH. What is the world coming to? Wednesday, June 5.

Libidan

Science in fiction is getting all trendy these days, but a book that languished inadvertently on my shelves until recently is worth a look. PJ Goddard's Libidan tells of the discovery of a drug that sexually arouses almost instantly any woman who even just breathes it in. The subsequent attempt to exploit the finding by a rather naive chemist leads him into a web of intrigue with love-lorn policemen, junior marketing executives and pet shop owners by way of drug barons and a corrupt pharmaceuticals director. Buy it now on www.Amazon.co.uk Tuesday, June 4.

The old ones...

Question: How many Internet mailing list subscribers does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: 1374.
1 to change the light bulb and to post to the mailing list that the light bulb has been changed, 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently, 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs, 27 to point out spelling errors in posts about changing light bulbs, 53 to flame the spell checkers, 41 to correct spelling in the spelling flames, 156 to write to the list administrator complaining about the light bulb discussion and its inappropriateness to this mailing list, 109 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and to please take this e-mail exchange to another list, 203 to demand that cross posting to other lists about changing light bulbs be stopped, 111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts _are_ relevant to this mailing list, 309 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique, and what brands are not so good, 27 to post web addresses where one can see examples of different light bulbs, 14 to post that the web addresses were posted incorrectly, and to post corrected ones, 33 to concatenate all posts to date, then quote them including all headers and footers, and then add 'Me Too!', 12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy, 19 to quote the 'Me Toos' to say, 'Me Three!', 4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ, 48 to propose new <change.lite.bulb> newsgroup, 47 to say there is already an <alt.light.bulb> newsgroup, 143 to ask if anyone ever did change the light bulb. Friday, May 31. 2002 Back in June!

UK-US, speaking of which...

X-ra

A crystallographer friend - who shall remain anonymous - discovered that surfing ain't what it used to be. Apparently, the information technology department at a company she was visiting in the US had set up software to monitor web sites visited on its terminals. The software quickly spots "SEX" and "Adults Only" by looking at the first four characters of keywords. There was more than a little nudging and winking at the lunchtime meeting and embarrassment for our friend as apparently various sites she had visited that morning during the coffee break had been logged as "X-rated". The truth, as it emerged, was even more embarrassing when they realised she hadn't been looking at erotica but had illicitly been visiting X-ray crystallography sites to gen up for the meeting instead. Wednesday, May 29.

A solid solution for periods

For decades Mendeleev's insight has been charted, but despite the obvious use of the word the idea of periodic furniture has not been tabled - until now. http://www.mathpuzzle.com/Periodic.htm Thursday, May 23.

Elemental Discovery

Our good friend John Emsley has brought us up to date with the latest elemental discoveries in his book Nature's Building Blocks (April 2002, Oxford) You can get hold of a copy of this mighty tome through Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and presumably an Amazon near you wherever you may be. A book for the desktop not the coffee table. For an alternative view of the elements you might try Peter Atkins' The Periodic Kingdom, which is more of a book for the coffee table than the laboratory bench. But, excellent nevertheless. Wednesday, May 22.

Pirelli

No rubber here. Unfortunately Reactive Reports was unsuccessful in its bid for an InterNETional Pirelli award although it was shortlisted last year, so there. Wednesday, May 22.

SciTechDaily

sciencebase partner site SciTechDaily just got a Webby nomination. Smart! Tuesday, May 21 2002.

All your base

Are belong to us. Tuesday, May 21.

It's a gas

Take a look at the current issue of Science, there's an intriguing item from DBSW discussing a lab on a chip that can take you from A --> B via the shortest route, all it takes is a little helium gas, a flash of electricity the solution lights up. Monday, May 20.

A froggy went...

That elusive Grauniad article re the drugs on frogs is now online... http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,715891,00.html Thursday, May 16.

If not then, when?

In case you looked out for David Bradley in The Grauniad you will have been sorely disappointed. The article on the froggy medicine chest is actually in this week's science section. Check it out on Thursday, and if you really cannot get to the paper, we might include the URL here. Tuesday, May 14.

Good, Bad astronomy

If you fancy getting clued up on the real reason the sky is blue or why the moon looks smaller when it's high in the sky but like an enormous glowing disc when it's on the horizon, you should take a look at Philip Plait's latest book. I'm only about half way through it but it's certainly one I'd recommend from the off given Plait's credentials and his familiar website (www.badastronomy.com). You can buy it from Amazon, of course, click here. May Wednesday 8 2002.

Supernatural arousal

Out on CD-ROM is the Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology. Type in some  "rude" words just for the helluvit...try "coitus", "vagina" and "intercourse" and "erection" maybe...The causes, apparently of an erection i.e. "enlargement and stiffening of the penis" are described as "physical or *psychic* stimulation". How many users of the dictionary were truly turned on by Mystic Meg? Go on, tell me. Monday 29.

Top twenty -

1(2) epothilone - why does this stay close to the top month in month out?
2(1) discoveries
3(8) susan greenfield - ever popular for her controversial stance on marijuana
4(7) chemistry discoveries 
5 (new entry) obesity - calories in >>>> calories burned
6 (new entry) spectral lines - check out our sibling site.
7(20) logic gate - It certainly is, Cap'n
8(3) discoveries in chemistry 
9 (new entry) helicobacter pylori - if you've the stomach for it
10 (new entry) how we smell - awful!
11(16) lock and key theory - follow your nose
12(18) copper sulphate crystals - classic kidz xtal garden banned!!!
13 (new entry) galileo - science for art's sake
14 (new entry) porphyrin - ringing the changes
15 (new entry) luca turin - spectral understanding of olfaction
16 (new entry) glowing plants - light the way for farming at night
17 (new entry) ginseng - tonic or toxin?
18 (new entry) green tea - hold the milk
19 (new entry) elemental - discoveries
20 (new entry) mercury atom - Alchemists at work?