Aug 28, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 14 Comments; add yours
UPDATE: By sheer coincidence (I could claim prescience), the BBC is reporting that Brits are drinking more than ever on holiday. “Holidaymakers are turning to drink on their breaks with the average adult consuming eight alcoholic drinks a day, a survey suggests, which amounts to around 200 units on a single trip.” (BBC)
Intoxicants have been with humanity for millennia, indeed, there are examples of other species that, ahem, self medicate, with various herbs and …
Aug 26, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 28 Comments; add yours
Could a simple dietary change that increases glutathione, or indeed supplementation with this antioxidant tripeptide, be all you need to boost your immune system and ward of influenza? Several Sciencebase correspondents and hundreds of “bloggers” selling supplements seem to think so…but I am not so sure, despite the couple of limited research papers that they cite again and again in their marketing literature.
Initially, it seems, the results of a small trial …
Aug 24, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 16 Comments; add yours
David Bradley reporting from Science Online London 2009 (#solo09)
The “modern” form of scientific publishing began in the 17th century when gentlemen (rarely has it been a lady until very recently) with an inquisitive bent decided it would be a good idea to share the results of their endeavours among their peers, for assessment, confirmation and debate. August bodies that published these seeds of enlightenment as well as the occasional monstrous …
Aug 21, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 5 Comments; add yours
Toxic sunscreen testing – Regardless of the debate on whether or not you can have too little sunshine on your skin, it is important to remember that currently there is no standard tests for monitoring toxic heavy metals contained in sunscreen creams.
Now, researchers in Greece have demonstrated that a sophisticated, but relatively straightfoward technique can be used to simultaneously determine levels of the inorganic UV filter, titanium dioxide, and several …
Aug 19, 2009
Posted in Geek, Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 5 Comments; add yours
I’ve discussed the risk of losing your job because of blogging previously. Recently though there was a case of summary dismissal by Facebook of a young British woman who debased her employer’s good character via her Wall has gained several column inches in the popular press.
And, of course, we have all heard about the accommodation agent in the US is suing a twitter user for 140 characters of allegedly …
Aug 17, 2009
Posted in Geek, Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 7 Comments; add yours
For decades, the word “fingerprint” has been used to denote a set of unique characteristics, whether literally the complex patterns of arches, loops, and whorls on one’s fingertips or entirely figuratively and more recently, the notion of a genetic fingerprint based on an analysis of an individual’s DNA sequence.
Most recently though, scientists have turned to another “omic” metabonomic fingerprinting using the analytical technique of NMR spectroscopy to obtain a unique view of …
Aug 14, 2009
Posted in Environment, Geek, Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 13 Comments; add yours
A while back The Sunday Times got wind of a poster to be presented at a meeting by a researcher from Ohio State University. OSU posted an embargoed press release to Eurekalert and Newswise, but the Sunday Times, apparently never received that press release. Regardless, the paper put together a story with an incredible spin that ran on the Sunday before the meeting. The research poster was about Facebook and …
Aug 13, 2009
Posted in Science at 8:50 am by David Bradley -- 2 Comments; add yours
Bit late with the update for The Alchemist this week, had so much else to talk about before a slot was available, there was also the matter of our family vacation, hope readers find the info current enough to be of interest.
The Alchemist recently learned that music could be the key to the smooth running of a lab-on-a-chip, while tweaking quantum dots for …
Aug 10, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 6 Comments; add yours
Planning a new city, mapping out a town redevelopment, or simply coming up with a blueprint for an eco site? Matthew Carmona, Professor of Planning & Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, has ten questions you must answer honestly before digging the first foundations and routing the roads if you want your site to be sustainable.
Do proposals enhance their context, effectively join-up the range of contributions and therefore help to …
Aug 7, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 2 Comments; add yours
German researchers have used the powerful analytical technique of X-ray diffraction to home in on an important metabolic reaction used by all pathogenic bacteria and the malaria parasite. The detailed structure of the IspH enzyme active site they revealed, which resembles a shamrock in shape, and has an Fe-S cluster at its core, could offer a promising new target for novel antibiotics that might stave off bacterial resistance.
More details on the research …
Aug 5, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 18 Comments; add yours
As far as I am aware, the online, interactive, open access journal PLoS ONE (Public Library of Science ONE), has not yet been given any love by ISI, the Thomson Reuters company that doles out impact factors to journal publishers.
Impact Factor is strange. It shares some of the characteristics with the so-called page rank value adopted by the Google search engine to rank websites …
Aug 3, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 4 Comments; add yours
In Einstein’s theory of relativity, energy is equivalent to matter, they’re essentially synonymous and in his famous equation Energy (E) is proportional to mass (m), with the square of the speed of light (c2) being the proportionality constant E = mc2, in other words…but why?
Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw, in the imaginatively titled “why does E = mc2 (and why should we care)“, attempt to …
Aug 1, 2009
Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 2 Comments; add yours
Bonus Saturday science news post from my virtual desktop with a spectral hint all published on SpectroscopyNOW this morning:
Insider fingerprints – An Italian and German research team has used NMR spectroscopy to fingerprint a person’s metabolic phenotype. Their work shows that while the range of metabolic products and their concentrations varies significantly from person to person they are relatively stable over time for each individual.
Influenza on the brain – A …
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