May 29, 2009

Curious X-shooter Antibiotics

Posted in Science at 4:00 pm by David Bradley -- 3 Comments; add yours

 

A sneak preview of my spectroscopyNOW ezine headlines for June 1:

Bi-curious microcylinders – A team in the US has produced micrometre-wide discs and elongated rods from bi-coloured and multicoloured compartments. The composite materials could have novel applications in diagnostics, drug delivery, and a new type of display technology.

X-shooter snap the cosmos – The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope now has an X-shooter, a second-generation spectroscopic instrument that can record the entire spectrum …

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Apr 29, 2009

Raspberry Ripple Galaxy

Posted in Bird Flu at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 6 Comments; add yours

 

Recently, an innocuous-seeming press release was released by German astronomers announcing that they had found two of the most complex molecules ever in space – n-propyl cyanide, more commonly known to chemists as butyronitrile, and ethyl formate. Now, butyronitrile is a nasty poison with a characteristic odour and I’m sure you’d get a whiff of bitter almonds as you lay dying should you breathe it in too deep or …

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Feb 18, 2009

Alchemy, Spectroscopy, and the Hash

Posted in Science, spectroscopy at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 1 Comment

 

In the latest ezines from SpectroscopyNOW:

Magnetic drug delivery for Alzheimer’s disease – Tiny pieces of magnetite incorporated into chitosan microparticles could act as efficient drug-delivery agents for the Alzheimer’s drug tacrine. Tacrine has notoriously low oral bioavailability and unclear efficacy but this delivery approach boosts uptake.

Contrasting tumours – US scientists have successfully predicted the outcome on breast tumours in a pre-clinical study of a …

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