Month: August 2012

Latest chemistry news round-up from the ChemWeb Alchemist, who this week looks through an ITO coated glass darkly this week with another step taken towards transparent electronics for solar panels. In earthly news, life’s inorganic components may have emerged as supercontinents were formed giving rise to organisms capable of sexual reproduction. In the materials world, a new form of carbon sought for half a century is made experimentally under pressure. In pharma news, an explanation for chemotherapy resistance comes to light. And, in the physical world, quantum entanglement is snapped. Finally, this week’s award goes to Canadian microfluidics research.

Latest Alchemist.

While the Gates Foundation is looking to reward new toilet designs, there is a “first-world” problem that afflicts many of us from time to time. The dreaded dropping the phone, iPod, Kindle in the toilet bowl. The whole hygiene and pathogen dissemination issue of using electronic gadgets on the toilet aside, how do you best dry a sodden device?

Numerous sites talk about quickly retrieving said device and gently towelling it dry without switching it on, removing the battery and then burying the gadget in uncooked rice in a sealed container (or better still putting it in a sealed container with a few packets of silica gel (the kind often found in the original packaging in which the device was delivered). The idea has most recently appeared on the UK CNet site, for instance.

I did a straw poll on Twitter to see whether the rice solution had worked for anyone and got mixed messages. Many said it did nothing useful and the gadget was bricked, while one or two said it had dried it out (it might have dried out without the rice of course). Rice – mostly carbohydrate – is hygroscopic (it can absorb water spontaneously from its surroundings), so maybe if a device is not too deeply wet, if it’s in a sealed container the rice will absorb water vapour from within the container, and so indirectly pull any moisture from within the device. It’s a long shot, but maybe worth a try. Companies selling device-drying systems refer to the “rice myth”, but then they would, wouldn’t they? There are also coming soon, if not already available, sealing services that will waterproof your gadget. But, why don’t manufacturers make them watertight by design?

I wonder though whether, under supervision, a much more radical and effective approach would be to blast the device with a jet of carbon dioxide from a fire extinguisher. I’m not recommending the idea, just putting it out there as a possible approach.

Has anyone rescued a gadget from total submersion in water? I failed when an old mp3 player went through a wash cycle in my pocket. What trick did you use?

Oh and while we’re on supposedly natural remedies against disease (how natural is processed, sweetened chocolate?), there is a nice feature article over in Science-Based Medicine [no relation, Ed] that debunks the deceived wisdom about cinnamon and its supposed benefits to people with diabetes.

Here’s what Scott Gavura has to say:

“Cinnamon’s effectiveness as a treatment for diabetes has not been established. A prescription drug as ineffective as cinnamon likely wouldn’t pass FDA muster.”

He points out that there are existing therapies for diabetes that are inexpensive, effective and well tolerated. And emphasises that we don’t know if cinnamon can reduce morbidity (nasty symptoms) or the risk of mortality in diabetes. “For my patients that insist on trying cinnamon, I’d caution them of the risks, and reinforce that cinnamon is no alternative for lifestyle [basically, weight loss and exercise] changes and medication if necessary,” he says. He emphasises my old sawhorse about “natural”, it may well be from nature but “that doesn’t mean it’s either safe or effective.”

The media was recently salivating over the idea that dark chocolate could somehow reduce blood pressure courtesy of its flavanols. But, NHS Choices has once again debunked this medical deceived wisdom. The claims in the research hyped by the tabloids were for an average 2-3 mmHg lowering of blood pressure reading based on a meta analysis of studies into the effects of chocolate on bp. Regardless, that seems like a rather small reduction.

Chocolate in moderation can be part of a healthy balanced diet, the magazine says. But most chocolate is high in fat and calories so too much will counteract any benefits of marginal reduction in blood pressure. Moreover, the study didn’t look at heart and stroke outcomes for those eating dark chocolate so the supposed lowering of blood pressure could be have been entirely misleading with regard to health.

The magazine points out that there are far more effective and healthier ways to reduce blood pressure than indulging in chocolate (sadly):

1. Reducing your consumption of salt (no more than 6g a day).
2. Taking regular exercise.
3. Losing weight if you are overweight or obese.

While I’ve been writing my own book, Deceived Wisdom, I’m afraid I’ve not had an awful lot of time to read and review the various science books that have been piling up on my desk. So, here’s a quick round-up based on the publisher descriptions of those in my reading queue.

Drugs Without the Hot Air (9781906860165): David Nutt – From health to family to society, Nutt offers a science-based perspective on drug use and abuse. He applies the same objective criteria to legal and illegal substances and argues that legality is not a clear measure of harm, some illegal drugs are far less hazardous and detrimental to individuals and society than legal drugs, such as alcohol. Nutt takes on questions of ranking drugs for true harms, whether addiction is curable and how the so-called war on drugs may have serious unintended consequences for the wellbeing of our children.

Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World (9781444710168): Angela Saini – One in six employed scientists with science or engineering doctorates in the U.S. is Asian, and by the turn of the millennium, there were claims that a third of all engineers in Silicon Valley were of Indian origin, with Indians running 750 of its tech companies. In this entertaining exploration of India’s rise as a centre of scientific excellence, Angela Saini delves inside the psyche of the nation’s science-hungry citizens, curious, colourful characters who easily square spirituality with being "geeks."

Amazon.com: Fitness for Geeks: Real Science, Great Nutrition, and Good Health (9781449399894): Bruce W. Perry – Fitness For Geeks is designed to appeal to a broad audience of techies and other engineers, athletes, gym rats, adventurers, in short anyone with a scuffed-up muddy pair of running or cycling shoes (or bare feet) who wants to take a cerebral approach to health. The "measure mantra" is a useful concept for people seeking fitness ("what gets measured gets managed and fixed"), and now you have the software, gear, and companion book to do it.

My Sister Rosalind Franklin: A Family Memoir 9780199699629: Jenifer Glynn – Jenifer Glynn is sister to Rosalind Franklin, whose pioneering X-ray crystallography work provide the key insights needed by Watson and Crick to unravel the double helix of DNA. Much has been written about her role in the rapid advent of molecular biology in the 1950s, but Glynn offers a family perspective on the woman, the scientist, the sister.

Franklin, of course, died prematurely of ovarian cancer and was not cited in the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, the committee makes no posthumous awards. The Prize was shared by Crick, Watson and fellow King’s scientist Maurice Wilkins. It has been a point of contention over the years that her vital role in painstakingly crystallising DNA and recording its X-ray diffraction patterns is marginalised by the flamboyant and wonderful work of Watson and Crick.

Franklin, however, was worked in areas other than DNA. She provided unique and invaluable insights into carbon structures, which essentially underpin our understanding of supposedly “modern” forms of carbons such as nanotubes, fullerenes, and graphene. She also later worked on viral structures to great success.

In this family memoir sister and historian Glynn considers Franklin’s tragically short life, her early education, her student days at Cambridge, and her time in Paris and at King’s College London where she crystallised science’s early thoughts on DNA.

Back in the day, parents used to spend nine months wondering what they’re baby would be like. Then came monochromatic, grainy but wonderful ultrasound, which showed you the baby in mummy’s “tummy”…we have such grainy snapshots of both our children ante-natal and lovely they are too. Then ultrasound went all high-def and 3D and gave the next generation of parents a crisper view of their unborn baby’s bits and pieces.

But, with rapid prototyping printers, commonly known as 3D printers, you can get a much better feel for how your baby will turn out:

UPDATE: Roads are re-opening, suspicious package was not, apparently, a bomb.

UPDATE: Jenny Rohn just updated us: “Apparently there is a suspicious package in the Whittington hospital A&E – avoid Archway station and environs if you can, all locked down. ”

UPDATE: McDonald’s evacuated. Obviously, no food wasted by those abandoning their “meal”.

UPDATE: @HornseyJournal Just updated us: “Rumours of bomb alert at or near Archway Tube station/Whittington Hospital now. Buildings nearby being evacuated. Police helicopter there.”

Cell biologist Jenny Rohn just tweeted that “Police have asked us to evacuate Archway campus of University College London” and asks if anyone know whats going down? No responses have appeared as yet, be interesting to know if she has a twitter scoop on something interesting. Anyone know?

Hope she and her colleagues are all safe. Do keep us informed Jenny.

Twitter / JennyRohn: Police have asked us to evacuate ….