Feb 24, 2006

Styrofoam and Polystyrene

Posted at 8:00 am by David Bradley  

It’s not an excuse to use more plastic cups at the office water cooler, but Irish and German researchers have discovered that the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida can eat polystyrene. This polymer, instantly recognisable in its expanded form is a key component of disposable cups, and in “plastic” plates and utensils.

Turning it into an eco-friendly plastic would significantly reduce the environmental impact of this ubiquitous, but difficult-to-recycle waste stream, according to a study scheduled to …

Feb 23, 2006

Blogging Feeds

Posted at 7:00 pm by David Bradley  

If you’re a regular Sciencebase reader with a particular area of interest, did you know you can grab themed RSS newsfeeds for the site:

The complete feed is available with this link

http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/feed/

if you add one of the following terms to the URL immediately after the final slash – rss, rss2, atom – you can aggregate the feed with a particular flavour too, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, or Atom, respectively.

For themed feeds follow these examples using …

Stroke Immunity

Posted at 5:00 pm by David Bradley  

Proteins involved in the inflammatory response could be used to help in brain
regeneration following cerebral stroke, according to Swedish researchers writing in the EMBO
Journal today.

Complement proteins participate in the inflammatory response and scientists have suggested that under abnormal circumstances, following stroke for instance, their role in inflammation could contribute to tissue damage in the brain. This new research, by Marcela Pekna and colleagues of the Sahlgrenska Academy at Goeteborg University, reveals surprisingly that complement proteins …