Year: 2008

Vital Signs

HomeopathyrVita emailed me today to enthuse about a purportedly “wonderful resource”, which is apparently the web’s first integrative medicine community (funny they should claim that as I had someone else emailing to tell me yesterday about their first such site too).

Anyway, I checked out the site, and am very, very disappointed, the first article I read was wrong, wrong, wrong. Homeopathy is most certainly not a viable alternative to vaccination against lethal diseases like polio, tetanus, and measles. To claim otherwise is not only seriously misleading but incredibly dangerous.

We’ve discussed some of the supposed issues surrounding possible problems with conventional vaccines here before, but homeopathy cannot prevent anyone from contracting such serious illness. No matter how hard followers of Hahnemann’s idea that diluting a substance repeatedly until absolutely none of the original compound remains in one’s vial and all the while repeatedly bashing the vial against a Bible believe it to work, it does not.

There is no valid, reproducible evidence of the efficacy of homeopathy as prophylaxis for serious disease where a vaccine would usually be used to prevent infection. The rVita article claims:

“Based on principles of natural law, you can receive protection against the flu or any disease including polio, tetanus, and measles by natural immunity.”

Seriously, there is no scientific basis nor evidence for any of the claims of homeopaths, particular with regard to prophylaxis against lethal diseases. This is as true in National Homeopathy Week as at any other time of the year.

rVita originally suggested the site would be “wonderful resource for any upcoming articles you might be planning on alternative or integrative medicine, Health 2.0, health resources on the Internet, or any other health-related topics,” well it does provide fodder for my highlighting some of the sillier claims of alt med.

Apparently, for users of the rVita community, “whether researching alternative remedies for allergies, infertility, insomnia, chronic pain or even adjunctive care for cancer, users can turn to rVita for help in separating the science from the snake oil.”

Hmmm…as well as the unfounded case of homeopathy, they also discuss Reiki therapy, therapeutic touch, art therapy and the like. Beyond, the placebo effect (which is admittedly very powerful) none of these or many other alternative therapies have any basis in reality

The exceptions, of course, are some herbal remedies. After all, a large proportion of modern drugs from aspirin and AZT to ephedrine and taxol are based on natural products. And some of the manipulating methods such as osteopathy and chiropractic, while dubious in their origins and some of their wider claims, do have physical effects. I was discussing such matters as the claims of chi, energy fields and auras with a colleague in the telecommunications industry who asked, scathingly, “In what units is this universal energy measured?” It’s a rather insightful put down.

Meanwhile, Niteen Bhat Founder CEO of rVeda Inc, of Santa Clara, California, and parent company of the rVita website, contacted me in response to my email respone to their approach. This is what he had to say:

I just wanted to highlight a few things about our philosophy to present our side of the story: Our goal is to bring perspectives from both for “for” and “against” constituents for a particular therapy or modality to enable informed decision making and separate science from snake oil. We welcome experts such as yourself to either comment on any article or even write your own articles that highlight issues with any remedy. That’s the power of Web 2.0 that we are unleashing on CAM.

Having said that, consumers and integrative medicine folks are finding some of these therapy to be effective even though scientific trials are inconclusive or not done yet. One of the reason being that many CAM therapies take personalized medicine approach and essentially have slightly different variants of therapies for each individual. This is exactly the reason we currently do not promote product sales, or do-it-yourself therapies, but expect consumers to get healed via licensed CAM practitioners.

Our content is overseen by conventional medicine MDs (I have copied our Chief Medical Advisor on this email). We did discuss the issues raised and came to [the] conclusion that we need to highlight practitioner articles as such so that we keep sanctity of our select/carefully chosen experts and their opinions. We have decided to separate practitioner articles under separate categories.

So, my review of their site has had a rather positive effect, but efforts to dry up supplies of snake oil must continue.

Many commentators will not accede to using words such as “complementary” or “integrated” to refer to alternative medicine, the name change falls into the same camp as switching from “creationism” to “intelligent design”, as far as I am concerned. Show me the evidence in the form of large-scale, robust, placebo-controlled, double or even triple, blind, clinical trials, however, not spurious poorly controlled tests and selective meta studies, and I’m a believer.

If it produces a sound akin to that of the aquatic avian species falling under the taxonomic name Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos, then it really is best avoided, especially if you wish to stay free of lethal diseases.

For an excellent summary of alternative medicine the fact and the fiction, check out Singh and Ernst’s book Trick or Treatment

Crohn’s Disease Drug Approved

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Tysabri (Natalizumab), a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of moderate to severe Crohn’s disease in patients with evidence of inflammation who have had an inadequate response to, or are unable to tolerate, conventional Crohn’s disease therapies. So reports MediceNews.net.

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disorder that can affect the whole of the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus. It leads to a wide variety of symptoms, primarily abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, or weight loss. It can also cause serious complications outside the gastrointestinal tract such as skin rashes, arthritis and eye inflammation.

Crohn’s disease patients using the newly approved drug must be enrolled in a special restricted distribution program called the Crohn’s Disease—Tysabri Outreach Unified Commitment to Health (CD TOUCH) Prescribing Program.

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Midsummer Alchemist

Midsummer alchemistFirst online in The Alchemist, this week, is an award for pioneering work in mass spectrometry and the study of molecules colliding with surfaces.

A way to create the thinnest polyethylene plastic bag ever has been devised by a team in Germany, while Australian researchers are hoping to defeat HIV by thickening the protective keratin layer of the penis using the female hormone estrogen. The Alchemist also learns that the Brits are turning to waste oil from that wondrous delicacy Fish & Chips to power up their cars.

Also in this week’s issue, Japanese chemists have synthesized what at first site looks to be a hexavalent carbon compound. Finally, with the long summer months stretching ahead of those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, The Alchemist cracks open a tinny and discovers that researchers in Venezuela have uncovered the secret to making beer last longer – add a little poison.

Grab all leads in my Alchemist column on Chemweb.com

Also live this week, the latest Intute Spotlight, covering rule-breaking quantum mechanics, exploiting pathological proteins in polymer science, and size does matter (on a planetary scale). Switch on the Spotlight. You may also like to check out the recent scientific discoveries archive on Sciencebase.

Save Gas

Old cars are bestApologies if, like me, you’re a Brit and prefer to refer to petrol and diesel, then apologies for today’s post title. But, I’ve noticed a flurry of complaints from Americans about the price of vehicle fuel, recently, and just had to comment. Complaints about the price of gas? I hear the good folks of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland exclaim! Yes, indeed, apparently, filling your tank Stateside now costs a staggering $4 per gallon (about 8 pounds sterling!) Pah! You say, us Brits are paying the equivalent of over $10 per gallon these days.

So what’s a driver to do? Save fuel that’s what! But, how? Money-saving expert and pragmatic tide-wad Martin Lewis has a few pointers on his MoneySavingExpert site. In fact, he reckons following his advice could cut your fuel spend by a third and it doesn’t involve overthrowing a government with a penchant for heavy stealth taxes.

There are four key steps to saving money on fuel, Lewis explains:

  • Boost vehicle efficiency
  • Drive more efficiently
  • Find cheaper fuel
  • Get cashback on your fuel

The first of these involves removing any dead weight from your vehicle, detachable seats that never see a derriere could be stored offline, as it were. Roofracks and cycle racks should be taken down unless in use, and any trash, garbage, waste, rubbish lying in footwells, in the boot and trunk and elsewhere should be disposed of or recycled. Lewis reckons decluttering can save a couple of a percent, while ditching the roofrack and do the same.

Other fuel savers include keeping tires at the correct pressure for your vehicle (up to 3% saving), keeping air-con use to a minimum (A/C uses between 4 and 8% of your fuel in hot weather). Lewis’ final efficiency tip is slightly less obvious and possibly doubtful – don’t fill your tank, he says. A car will run just as well on a half-full (half-empty) tank as a full one, apparently. He claims that the weight saving of not filling up every time you drive on to a garage forecourt (filling station), will boost efficiency by about 1%.

I’m not so sure that this stacks up overall, however, because you will end up making twice as many journeys to the filling station, which itself will use fuel not only with the drive, but the stops and starts, and if you get stuck in traffic it could soon counteract that 1% saving. Especially given that being parked with the engine idling for 5 minutes is the equivalent of driving 5 miles, or thereabouts.

Anyway, back to his list. Lewis next suggests that being a gentler driver, rather than a kid-racer can save you up to 60% fuel without cutting your top speed. It’s not about the theoretically optimal approach of accelerating gently up to 56 mph and then releasing the accelerator pedal and cruising back down to close to zero and then slowly accelerating up to 56 again. Rather, Lewis explains, you should ensure you’re driving in the appropriate gear (for stick shift drivers only) and that you should speed up smoothly.

“When you press harder on the pedal more fuel flows, but you could get to the same speed using much less power,” he says, “a good rule is to stay under 3,000 revs [revolutions per minute, rpm].” Conversely, when you want to slow down, use the engine and ease down through the gears, reduce the need to stamp on the breaks. All that hard stopping and starting many drivers do simply wastes fuel. As my driving instructor told me at the start of my first lesson in decades past, “We’re all trying to get from A to B, but there’s no need to rush, be polite to other road users, and enjoy the ride.” (A good life philosophy in general, I thought).

Lewis’ Point 3 means either doing some legwork and hunting down the best buys for fuel or using one of the many price comparison tools on the web. In the UK, we have the aptly and simply named petrolprices.com. Lifehacker recently highlighted GasBuddy and Gaspricewatch in the US. However, if you find a filling station 30 miles off your regular route that offers a fractional per gallon saving, then give it a miss, the extra 60 miles will most likely counteract the saving. In tip #4, Lewis suggests cashing in on loyalty cards, cashback credit cards, and company savings schemes, which could save a few quid (bucks) too.

There are several other tips we might add to Lewis’ list. If you’re in the UK, agricultural vehicles avoid a certain amount of tax on their fuel, so becoming a farmer could save you money (and, of course, lose you it in other ways). You might be tempted to throw some magic potion, magnets or shiny beads into your tank in the hope of saving a few pennies. Don’t be. From a chemist’s perspective, I’d like to emphasise that drivers should avoid all such scams including so-called catalysts, magnetic gizmos, and shiny beads. Crystals, Reiki, and homeopathic remedies don’t work to fix human bodies, equally they are not going to let you squeeze extra juice from your car.

Some observers suggest switching to compressed gas vehicles, hybrids, electric, and fuel cells etc. These are all well and good, although on the whole simply displace pollution elsewhere in terms of the fuels they use. However, the enormous overall energy and financial cost of replacing even an old car is far, far greater even than maintaining an old banger (lemon).

Finally, here is the killer tip on how to save money on gas – walk or use a bicycle. Aside from the costs of extra carbs you’ll need to sustain you for the journey and the marginal increase in laundry costs for your Lycra cycling shorts, the broader outlook is for an almost 100% fuel saving. Of course, if you commute fifty miles a day, you’re going to have to set the early morning alarm just a little bit earlier to arrive at work on time, but just think of all those poor suckers paying $10 a gallon and listen to the dawn chorus and you’ll feel a whole lot better.

A Chilli Gut Feeling

Sufferers of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) apparently have more protein receptors for the active compounds in chilli peppers, according to a study to be published June 11 in the journal Gut (PDF). The findings might one day lead to new treatments for IBS.

IBS is a painful, often chronic, condition which can cause cramping abdominal pains, bloating, and bowel problems such as constipation or diarrhea. The new work, carried out at Imperial College London, UK, shows that people with IBS have higher than usual levels of nerve fibres expressing the pain receptor TRPV1, responsible for the experience of the burning sensation when one eats chilli peppers. Finding compounds that block this receptor might lead to novel pharmaceuticals for IBS.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Water turbineFresh, clean water is going to be increasingly in short supply. Despite the recent heavy rains across Southern Europe, the building of desalination plants in such regions, and the shipping in of water supplies from elsewhere is likely to increase in coming years, while desertification will maintain its dehydrating crawl and some regions of the developing world will continue to die of thirst in hotter dry season, while squandering the precious harvest of the rainy season.

So, what’s the answer? Solar-powered desalination certainly, or perhaps the extraction of the hydrate component of abundant desert minerals such as gypsum (calcium sulfate dihydrate, 20% water by weight)?

In a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues (2008, 8, 224-232), M. Whisson of Subiaco, in Western Australia, discusses two serious alternatives for providing even the most parched lands with unlimited fresh water. Both approaches are reminiscent of ancient, old world technologies, but could provide a modern solution. Whisson explains the problem:

The world water crisis may be more serious than generally appreciated. One reason for this is that the main response has been to increase storage of rain rather than to increase the amount of fresh water. Another is that fossil groundwater has been widely seen as inexhaustible.

Storage and redistribution of rain water, of course requires processing plants while those suffering debilitating and ultimately fatal arsenic poisoning on the Indian sub-continent are all too familiar with the effects of the desiccation of aquifers.

“There are two, and only two, unlimited sources of water: the sea and the air,” says Whisson. The Earth has 1.26 x 1021 litres of water, of which 98% is seawater. The surface is acted on by solar radiation, turbulence and wind, which liberates water into the atmosphere ensuring that the lower 1 kilometre of the atmosphere (volume of 5 x 107 cubic kilometres contains 1 x 1015 kg of water, which turns over with a half life of a few days.

Harvesting of water from the air on a very small but socially important scale has a long history, as does desalination of seawater but, says Whisson, in the context of current and growing world needs, these approaches will provide nothing but a short delay in the onset of global life-threatening water scarcity. This is especially so, given their small, centralised scaling as industrial units.

Instead, Whisson suggests two fresh water collecting systems and argues that they have no ultimate limitations, either because of the availability of water or because of environmental constraints. The first system is the Water Road, a macro-engineering concept, which produces fresh water from seawater without the energy and processing demands of conventional desalination. It also offers a distributed network system that precludes many of the issues facing an industrial-style desalination plant. This system uses a large surface area to allow a non-fresh water supply to be distilled by solar and wind energy and trapped as fresh clean water.

The distillation would occur during the transfer of seawater inland (essentially given a kickstart by tidal surges) to the area of need, explains Whisson. This seems counter-intuitive, but immediately provides a high surface area, while the slow flow rate through a wide pipeline under a transparent heat-insulating cover means a large surface area of water is exposed to the sun over several days, with wind turbulence on the seawater surface acting like the natural process of transfer of surface water to the air over the open sea. This system of evaporation also avoids the inhibitory effect of water vapour saturation of the evaporating air. The concentrated seawater formed as a byproduct could be used to produce common sea salt at much lower cost and efficiencies than traditional drying pools.

The second system is a Water from Air system that uses a wind turbine to extract moisture from the wind. Whisson points out that at a relative humidity of 60%, a temperature fall from 20 to 5 Celsius would only require 10 grams of water per cubic metre of air. However, once it is recognised that a wind-driven turbine with an aperture of 10 square metres facing into a moderate breeze of 10 kilometres per hour would acquire 100000 cubic metres of air containing 1000 kg water every hour. Even with an efficiency of just 20% that would be a useful system, especially given that thousands of turbines could be installed in dry regions.

The two systems are seen as complementary,” explains Whisson, the Water Road providing water to large arid geographic areas, such as Western Australia, and the Water From Air units providing dispersed multiple water collection from the air wherever it is needed, whether on high industrial buildings, farm buildings, coastal cliff-tops, remote sand hills or small isolated communities.

Whisson, M. (2008). Two proposals for unlimited fresh water. International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 8(3), 224. DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2008.018637

Lead Astray

Literal gun crimeReminiscences on a serious Stateside gun crime: You would think you wouldn’t find a less controversial topic to write about than the analysis of heavy metals using thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (TIMS). In some ways it must sound like the dullest topic in the world, beyond those who work with MS. However, when the metal in question is lead, and its source is ammunition then I should have been prepared for a flame-war from the US readership over one particular specialist publication for which I wrote on the subject a few years ago. The bottom line is: don’t make flippant remarks connecting guns and ill health unless you want to be shot down in flames.

Anyway, the article in question (Instruments and Applications – Lead astray, from the now defunct Today’s Chemist at Work, can be downloaded here as a PDF) discussed TIMS’ analytical prowess and the serendipitous discovery by Australian researchers that it is not only those looking down the barrel of a gun who can end up with a nasty dose of lead, but perhaps even those holding the shooters themselves. With that article, it seems I hit a rather raw nerve in ending my feature with a rather glib question asking whether this might be a “healthy argument against bearing arms.”

In finishing with this throwaway query I was apparently jeopardising the very US Constitution. At least that’s the impression I got when my Editor began to forward the deluge of letters of complaint. I was accused of ignorance (not the first time), of having a political agenda (never), and even of being a “liberal” (perish the thought). One shooting chemist emailed in all uppercase letters to show his indignation:

“THE LAST SENTANCE SHOW YOU TO BE A LIBERAL WHO THINKS THAT GUNS ARE AN EVIL.”

Iron-ically, or should I say lead-ingly, another correspondent critical of the inaccurate portrayal of guns in fiction came to my rescue: “Keep up the good work, and kudos to David Bradley for a well-written article!” he proclaimed. So everything I wrote wasn’t all bad, after all.

Spelling, grammar, capital errors, and green spidery ink aside, the comments received highlighted an issue on which many readers of the magazine were obviously very passionate. I must confess, nothing I have written before has generated quite so many letters.

Was I naïve to throw scorn, albeit flippantly, on the idea of bearing arms? My Editor and her colleagues were as stunned as I at how many letters the article generated, especially given that the magazine was targeted at industrial chemists and not the general public. However, the 99,967 or so subscribers who didn’t write in obviously didn’t feel that the attitude gap between opposite sides of the Atlantic was quite as wide as the few who did.

Nutraceutical News

Functional peppersI discovered a rather intriguing perspective on the world of wellbeing, health and nutrition in the latest issue of the journal World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development (2008, 5, 104-123). In it, Sundus Tewfik of the Department of Health and Human Sciences at London Metropolitan University and Ihab Tewfik of the University of Westminster, shed light on nutraceuticals, or functional foods as they are sometimes called. You will doubtless have seen mention of functional foods and botanical dietary supplements as they seem to fill the advertising space in Sunday supplements and feature regularly in lifestyle magazines.

Apparently, nutraceuticals promote wellbeing and underpin public health by providing a supposedly natural way to lower raised cholesterol levels, help unblock clogged arteries, ward off otherwise inevitable cancers, and ease the machinations of the over-sensitive gut. All this, without anyone having to resort to pharmaceutical products and double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials.

It’s the opening paragraphs of the paper that were the most interesting with regard to the state of play when it comes to the gradual public acceptance of the marketing hype surrounding nutraceuticals:

Consider this domestic scene: it is a typical Sunday morning in an English household in the city of Westminster, London. Mrs Jones is preparing breakfast for her family. Like most mothers, she is concerned about her family’s nutritional status and tries to cook healthy meals. This morning it is an English breakfast, but not just an ordinary one.

Personally, I doubt there are many such domestic goddesses around these days, particularly in Westminster, but more to the point, I think many families these days rush breakfast with at best a quick splash of synthetic fruit juice, and some artificially flavoured cereal rather than feasting on the great English breakfast. But, that aside, the researchers then describe the menu:

The wholemeal bread was made out of grains to increase dietary fibre intake and essential micronutrients, thus helping bowl [sic] movement and support the gastrointestinal tract. The omega 3-enriched eggs will enhance the immune system, reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and blood clotting. The sugar-free orange juice has added vitamins and antioxidant nutrients, believed to reduce the risk of diabetes, CVD and cancer. The extra virgin olive oil she uses to fry the eggs [You shouldn’t use extra virgin to fry, it degrades rapidly at high temperatures, db] has been chosen to help lowering her mother-in-law high cholesterol.

Agreed, wholemeal bread is probably better for bowel movements than bland and bleached white bread, but wholemeal, while functional, is not the breakthrough health product. After all, my grandmother extolled the virtues of roughage to me decades ago.

The mention of omega acids and antioxidants is possibly valid, but there are no wide-scale trials yet to backup some of the wilder claims made in the popular press. Indeed, adding to one’s diet excessive amounts of antioxidants could ultimately compromise one’s immune system. The i immune system, after all, relies on its own oxidants to kill invading pathogens and destroy cancer cells.

Next, the team suggests that the breakfast sausages with “less than 1% fat” will somehow eliminate any risk of CVD posed by saturated fatty acids. Well, 1% might be described as low fat, but I’d prefer the term reduced, but again, I am not sure how functional are reduced-fat sausages.

One of my many pet peeves regards the claims surrounding so-called organic foods. The jury is still well and truly out on whether there are any benefits and as for the lack of pesticides and fertilisers requires some of those used by organic practitioners are already known to be more hazardous. The beans, tomatoes and mushrooms being “organically grown” also does not take into account the fact that just because Mrs Jones in Westminster can afford the luxury of organic this does not mean organic is better for the world. Energy expenditure for organic farming on a large enough scale to feed the world could be significantly greater than in non-organic methods.

Finally, the salt used by hubby was specially manufactured to help minimise his high blood pressure. Well, yes, I’d concede that’s a functional food. But, whether or not a sprinkle of non-sodium salt is going to benefit Mr Jones’ blood pressure is not beyond doubt; alcohol consumed, cigarettes smoked, processed foods eaten, and genes inherited, play a much bigger role. More to the point, given that the sausages will have been made with salt, why not simply not use salt at all, those organic foods are claimed as more flavoursome anyway, so no need to enhance with salt.

The researchers end their introduction with the thought that this Westminster breakfast is not a scene from ‘Balanced-Nutrition’ program on national television, it is the era of medicinal and functional foods and it is happening as we read this paper in many parts of the world. This is not just food this is ‘functional foods’.

Well, I am not so sure, most of what they describe is not functional in the conventional sense, although elsewhere in the paper they list dozens of functional foods and herbal supplements such as ginseng and Gingko biloba. There may certainl dozens, if not hundreds, of food products now on the market that claim some kind of health functionality. But, the whole notion of a supplemented diet that might improve wellbeing has been stacked very high in recent years. There are shelves full of milky probiotic drinks full of microbes that supposedly repopulate your intestine with good bacteria, products with plant steroids to reduce cholesterol, ward off the menopause, and dozens of herbal extracts each one of which is seemingly a cure-all for a wide range of disparate health conditions.

As long ago as 2001, uber-skeptic of the alternative medicine movement, Edzard Ernst of Exeter University, asked whether functional foods, neutraceuticals, and designer foods are simply an innocent fad or a counterproductive marketing ploy? (Eur J Clin Pharmacol 2001, 57, 353-355). He pointed out that so-called functional foods invariably contain less than therapeutic quantities of their active ingredients and may contain higher levels of apparently “unhealthy” ingredients such as saturated fats.

Almost a decade later, there is still a lot of health hype in those lifestyle magazines and supermarket shelves are increasingly stacked with organic produce, with its premium price tag, and healthstores are packed with botanical products from all corners of the globe. Is this food fad just a cynical marketing exercise, not only for food manufacturers, who can charge more by making dubious health claims for their products, but also for the pharmaceutical and health-care product companies who are now, as blockbuster pipelines dry up, providing the ingredients for the functional diets we are all being told we must consider.

I suspect, once the advertising revenues dwindle and the lifestyle magazines become necessarily bored with the functional food fad, that ultimately many will be left on the shelf while the next moneyspinner rings the changes at the checkout.

UPDATE> I’ve been having an interesting correspondence with commentator David Lustig who points out that there are some very rigorous double-blind placebo-controlled trials omega 3 products. These were carried out for the approved prescription drug Omacor, sold by Reliant, which is essentially nothing more than purified, concentrated fish oil. It has a profound effect on lowering triglycerides and is currently one, if not the only effective approved drugs for hypertriglyceridemia. Lustig suspects it will probably sell at least US$500M this year.

It’s an interesting point at the extremes there is a blurred division between the pharma and the nutra. However, this FDA approved product can in no way be categorised as being of the same ilk as probiotic yoghurt, although it is nothing more than concentrated fish oil a lot can happen when something is concentrated. More to the point, it will be almost 100% free of the kinds of contaminants, such as mercury, that might be found in the healthfood store kind of omega 3 fish oil products that are at much, much lower concentration.

Sunshine Monomer and the X-ray Sidestep

Sunny faceA simpler, gentler eye test based on Raman spectroscopy could spot ocular infection and other problems without irritating patients, although they may be required to yawn during the procedure. Whichever way you look at them, whether through the emotional blur of crying or as lachrymal secretions ripe for analysis, tears are complex. Now, researchers in the UK, have taken a close look at this aqueous solution of proteins, metabolites, electrolytes and lipids using Raman spectroscopy and obtained results that would make any ocular enthusiast cry with joy. Read more about this today in a sneak preview of my SpectroscopyNOW column for June 1.

Also in the June 1 issue – Sunshine monomer – Australian researchers have built a model of the skin pigment that protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays, that could help explain how the pigment can absorb and dissipate the energy of 99.9% of solar UV. Meanwhile crystallographers in the USA may have found a way to side-step one of the most frustrating steps in obtaining a molecular structure using X-ray diffraction, the crystallisation process itself. Instead, they’re using lasers to align molecules in the gas phase so that they can get Bragg-like diffraction pattern with pulses of high-energy synchrotron X-rays. The work could open up protein science in an entirely unprecedented way allowing proteins that cannot be crystallised to be studied with atom-by-atom detail. More on that, here.

Sex and Sin and Some Science

Lingerie shoppingPorn star names originally posted in August 2005, this was something of a joke post about how porn star names have become almost the  post-modern equivalent of a person’s astrological star sign, and a whole lot more scientifically valid, if you ask me, with names like Lucky Cocker and Goldie Black common. That’s despite first appearing almost three years ago, this post has had almost 14,000 readers so far in 2008 alone and that figure does not include anyone who read the post on any of the hundreds of sites that syndicate (legit) or scrape (exploitative) Sciencebase content.

Seven deadly sins With this year’s pronouncements from a certain central office in Rome, was it, this post about the so-called seven deadly sins, originally posted in February 2007 has garnered renewed interest from more than 8000 readers in 2008, not counting those who read it purely in the fulltext RSS newsfeed rather than visiting the site. A follow-up post entitled Seven Deadly Sins for Scientists also did very well at the time with a burst of 2000+ readers.

Anandamide cannabinoid This post has had more than 7000 readers this year. I cannot imagine what they’re hoping to find, but given it’s a spoof Beavis and Butthead style script together with a great cartoon about dope, cannabis, weed, skunk, call it what you will, I guess that might have something to do with its popularity.

Viagra sildenafil citrate They do say that almost every pub conversation will eventually boil down to talk of sh*t or sex, well the same goes for blogs, I guess and this post is no exception grabbing the attention of almost 4000 of you so far this year.

Obesity gene A perennial discussion topic on any sci-tech-med-health blog is inevitably going to be the issue of overweight and obesity, especially if scientists have brought up the subject of a genetic excuse, and this post from April 2007, with its Barbie girl photo has caught the eye of about 3500 readers from jan to May 2008

A billion light years from home Finally, another blockbuster this one with 10,000 readers since its ascendance on New Year’s Day 2008 (no, I wasn’t blogging then, it was a post scheduled prior to the break) does rather suggest that Sciencebase readers are not only interested in sex, obesity, pornstar names, sins, and cannabis, but also quite like a bit of astronomy too.