May 5, 2005

The SARS bacterium?

Posted in Health at 9:21 am by David Bradley -- 1 Comment

The journal Chemical Communications forever trying to publicise its papers, recently highlighted a “hot” paper about removing harmful bacteria from an airstream using a titania photocatalyst. That’s all well and good but “LJ”, who wrote the highlight, seems to imply that the inspiration for this works comes in the wake of the SARS outbreak. To quote: “The recent SARS outbreak has triggered concern over airborne bacteria and the diseases they can cause.”

Well, forgive me, but isn’t SARS a virus? The researchers themselves mention Legionella and the virus SARS but LJ presumably felt Legionnaire’s disease was not topical enough to catch the eye of any science writers prowling the Chem Commun hot papers page. Well, LJ, I’m afraid your mention of SARS caught my eye, but for all the wrong reasons.

Newsfeed