Category: Medicine

The Science Behind Making Us Live Healthier, Happier Lives

By Jackie Edwards

When it comes to health and happiness, science has one clear conclusion to be drawn: these qualities are intricately linked to the extent that it is difficult for one to exist without the other. A review by researchers at the University of Illinois found “clear and compelling evidence” that happy people tend to have longer lifespans and enjoy better health, than their unhappy counterparts.  The steps to physical health are not always the same ones leading to mental health. However, often, the two roads overlap and science has many fascinating findings on the matter.

How can Good Health be Defined?

Bloomberg’s Healthiest Country Index (which places Spain, Italy, Iceland, Japan, and Switzerland in the top five) equates good health with having a long lifespan and good access to general and specialist health care. While each country differs with respect to health care, one aspect all can work to improve is diet. Although there are many diets associated with good health, recent scientific studies have focused on one in particular: the Mediterranean Diet.

What Stops Us from Living Longer?

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans; it causes one out of every four deaths in the United States, according to the CDC. Cancer is the second leading cause of death, and both can be prevented to a large extent by making the right lifestyle choices. Diet and remaining physically active are two of the biggest lifestyle choices that promote health and happiness.

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Why The Skin Wrinkles And The Best Ways To Delay The Process

by Jackie Edwards

Aging is an inescapable biological process that results in cellular wear and tear. Though they say that it comes with wisdom and social respect, aging also brings a series of health issues, including a risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Healthy skin has a soft and smooth epidermis that protects the other two layers of the skin from direct exposure, but as the years go by, it starts to look rough and wrinkled. This is caused by two multifactorial processes known as intrinsic and extrinsic aging. The good news is that you can suppress the wrinkles by taking care of your skin ahead of time. 

What is Intrinsic aging?

Intrinsic aging is the natural deterioration process that takes place as you age. This aging syndrome is influenced by genetic factors that cause cells to lose viability and die. Around the age of 20, one starts to produce 1% less collagen in the skin each year, and as a result, the skin becomes thinner, fragile and more vulnerable. This type of aging inhibits the proper functioning of the sweat glands. Additionally, the skin starts to produce less Elastin and Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Wrinkles that are caused as a result of intrinsic aging are inevitable, and that is why you can approximate the age difference between two different people just by looking at them, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

Understanding Extrinsic aging

This kind of aging occurs as a result of exposure to various environmental conditions and an unhealthy lifestyle. Some of these factors include exposure to the sun, stress, drug abuse, and pollution. With extrinsic aging, a young person who smokes and uses drugs might have a more troubled complexion than an older person who does not abuse drugs. Influenced aging also affects elements such as Collagen which provides firmness, Elastin which facilitates elasticity and GAGS which help to keep the skin hydrated. Both intrinsic and extrinsic aging cause roughness, uneven tone, brown patches and deep wrinkles. 

Continue reading Why The Skin Wrinkles And The Best Ways To Delay The Process

The Science Behind Keeping Food Cold

by Jackie Edwards

1 in 10 people around the world become ill from after eating contaminated food. Chilling and freezing food is essential in preventing bacteria from multiplying on it, which can lead to illnesses, including food poisoning. However, sometimes bacteria can grow quicker than you’d think and by the time it’s chilled it may have already got bacteria growing on it. Research has helped our understanding for the best methods of chilling and freezing food to prevent bacteria growth and food poisoning.

Refrigerate When It’s Hot Or Cold?

It’s a common question whether you should let food cool down to room temperature before putting it in the fridge. Before modern fridges came along it was a good idea to let food cool down because putting hot or warm food in a fridge caused the temperature of it to rise, affecting everything else in the fridge. However, technology has made fridges more powerful and they can now easily handle warm food being put in them without the temperature of the fridge increasing much. Wait for food to stop steaming and when it reaches 60°F it can go in the fridge. This is better for food as it doesn’t give bacteria chance to multiply which is a common cause of food spoilage and poisoning.

Bacteria In Your Ice Cream

It’s an assumption that putting food in the freezer stops bacteria from growing or that it kills bacteria altogether. Most bacteria can’t survive in freezing temperatures, but unfortunately, this is not the case for all bacteria and some thrive in the cold environment. Freezers limit water and food sources, but some bacteria will thrive on frozen sugary foods, dairy and meat products. Ice cream contains a high sugar and dairy content, making it a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. One case in Kansas found at least three different strains of the Listeria bacteria in ice cream that led to five people being hospitalised and three dying. A study in Egypt found 42 out of 100 ice cream samples contained faecal coliform and 37 contained Klebsiella.

Stop Cross Contamination  

If you suspect that your freezer may have had a food in it that had bacteria growing on it then the best thing to do is to throw all food away and thoroughly clean your freezer. This is because the bacteria could have spread further than the originally contaminated food and it has the potential to grow on other foods and the sides of the freezer. You should also store food in containers in the fridge and freezer. This does take up more space, but it will keep food fresh and prevent cross contamination, so it can be beneficial to have a big enough fridge/freezer to adequately store food. This can prevent an outbreak within your fridge or freezer and the containers can be easily cleaned instead of having to throw food away or unknowingly eat contaminated food.

Food poisoning and other foodborne illnesses are often preventable, yet so many people are affected by them every year. A lot of this is down to a lack of knowledge and understanding about safely storing food in the fridge and freezer. As soon as food has stopped steaming, put it in your fridge to prevent bacterial growth. Be aware that bacteria can grow in cold temperatures, so use containers to separate food and prevent bacteria spreading.

The Science Behind The Perfect Cup Of Coffee Explained

by Jackie Edwards

Coffee drinking in the US is at its highest level for 6 years with 64% drinking coffee daily and 79% of those people preparing their daily cup of coffee at home. Scientifically speaking, the perfect cup of coffee has volatile oils and caffeine in abundance but with bitter organic acids kept to a minimum. Here’s how you can use science to influence the quality of your daily cup of coffee.

Beans And Roast

The perfect cup of coffee starts with the beans themselves. Arabica and Robusta are the 2 most popular beans in the coffee market. Robusta contains greater amounts of caffeine as well as chlorogenic acids which have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties as well as being linked to lower risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, Arabica contains larger amounts of Trigonelline, a bitter tasting alkaloid linked to battling cancer cells. As far as roasting is concerned, the strength of the roast produced by the different roast time affects the way the sugars and fats in the coffee degrade and how the sugar and amino acids react with each other affecting how it tastes. Lighter roasts have a cleaner taste and are more acidic with the darker roasts tasting less acidic with a stronger, heavier taste.

Coarseness Of The Bean Grind

The coarseness of the bean grind affects the speed that your coffee is made, which, in turn, affects the taste. The finer the grind the shorter the time needed to make your coffee due to the greater available surface area for extraction. A finer ground also leads to stronger, tastier coffee because more caffeine, oils and organic compounds will be present. Take care though, if the grind is too fine it may end up tasting too bitter.

All About Brewing

How you brew your coffee is as important as the quality of the raw materials themselves. The ideal brew ratio is a subject of much discussion amongst scientists. Too much water and the coffee tastes weak; too much and it is overly strong and unpalatable. There is also evidence to show that the calcium and magnesium ions found in hard water make a more flavorful cup of coffee than if clean distilled water is used. Scientists know that temperature affects solubility and compound extraction and the same applies when you make your cup of coffee. The hotter the water used to make your cup of coffee, the faster organic acids and caffeine are extracted. However, if your coffee boils, your coffee will be bitter and the aroma and flavor evaporate. A temperature of 195°F to 205°F is ideal according to the National Coffee Association.

How you brew your coffee is as important as the quality of the raw materials themselves. The ideal brew ratio is a subject of much discussion amongst scientists. Too much water and the coffee tastes weak; too much and it is overly strong and unpalatable. There is also evidence to show that the calcium and magnesium ions found in hard water make a more flavorful cup of coffee than if clean distilled water is used. Scientists know that temperature affects solubility and compound extraction and the same applies when you make your cup of coffee. The hotter the water used to make your cup of coffee, the faster organic acids and caffeine are extracted. However, if your coffee boils, your coffee will be bitter and the aroma and flavor evaporate. A temperature of 195°F to 205°F is ideal according to the National Coffee Association. 

As in any science experiment, there are many variables to consider when making the perfect cup of coffee and everyone’s tastes differ. The type of beans, roast and grind influence the quality of your morning coffee along with the heat and amount of water used to make your cup of joe.

Researchers Test New Ways to Combat Brain Cancer

by Megan Ray Nichols 

Thanks to researchers testing innovative treatments, brain cancer patients have new hope. Glioblastoma is just one form of brain cancer that may be better treated in the future with one of these new methods. Discover the ways scientists are working to stop the progression of this potentially deadly cancer.

What Is Glioblastoma?

Glioblastoma, also known as glioblastoma multiforme or GBM, is projected to affect 24,000 Americans in 2018. And 17,000 will die from these fast, aggressive tumors, which are the most common tumor-creating brain cancer. This cancer is a grade 4 tumor that may arise from an existing tumor or on its own. Most who develop GBM are older adults, where the disease typically grows in the frontal or temporal lobes. Without treatment, glioblastoma often kills its victims in about 15 months.

Treatment usually requires surgery to remove the tumor. Radiation and chemotherapy are added to ensure the removal of cancerous cells. Sadly, GBM recurs frequently in patients who have undergone treatment. That’s why new treatment options are so exciting for those with GBM and their families.

Virus vs. Cancer

Though you might not think of a virus versus cancer as much of a battle, researchers are discovering that a cold could help cancer patients live longer. Scientists took a common cold virus, called an adenovirus, and modified it to target glioblastoma. The virus attacked the tumor cells as it normally would other cells by taking over the cell and killing it. Viruses also use the cell’s natural reproduction to make copies of themselves. This allows viruses to spread to other cells.

The trials at MD Anderson Cancer Center gave 20 percent of patients three years or more of life where they’d have just months without treatment. Though the tumor came back in these patients, the viral therapy gives a few more years to those with recurrent tumors. To increase this number, additional studies are looking at combining the viral therapy with other treatments.

Space Age Lasers Blasting Glioblastoma

Laser ablation sounds more like a sci-fi weapon than a cancer treatment, but this option is currently showing promise in trials. Using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, and a laser, heat and light eat away at the tumor inside the brain. Unlike brain surgery, this option does not require completely opening the skull, making it much less invasive. Recovery is easier and faster for the patient.

New Drug Treatments

Though chemotherapy is common in GBM treatment, other drugs could be added to the regime. Many trials currently are studying combinations of drugs. Nivolumab and bevacizumab are being tested in a phase 2 clinical trial. The tolerance and effectiveness of changing bevacizumab to a low dose from a standard and combining it with nivolumab is at the core of this study. During phase 2 clinical trials, the researchers want to establish how effective this treatment is against glioblastoma.

Another phase 2 trial looks at creating a triple-method treatment, which would add to the traditional chemotherapy option, temozolomide. This study hopes to increase the length of time before a new tumor appears after treatment by combining the chemotherapy drug with pembrolizumab and TTFields. TTFields, also known as Optune, is an electromagnetic therapy for treating tumors. The control will only receive TTFields and temozolomide, while the experimental group will add pembrolizumab. Researchers will examine the length of time before the cancer progresses in participants.

Clinical Trials and Glioblastoma Treatment

Though it may take a while before the treatments tested in clinical trials today will be available to the public, it gives hope for future patients. Those who currently have GBM may discuss with their doctors the possibility of participating in clinical trials. As an aggressive, fast-acting cancer, new methods of treatment are always sought by researchers who want to lengthen the lives of those diagnosed with these tumors.

How is Science Sculpting the Modern Athlete?

by Jackie Edwards

Sport is big business these days, with the market worth $60.5 million in North America and predicted to rise to $73.5 billion in 2019. Sports is not only a moneymaker for event promoters and the media; it is also increasingly being seen as a top career choice for those with the talent, drive, and commitment required to succeed. New developments in sport have shown that success is not all about the individual athlete. In popular sports like tennis, football, or golf, science & technology are playing an important role in helping competitors perform at their full potential. In this post, we look at just a few ways that science is changing the way we play and compete.

Swing Training Technology for Golf

You would need to be a master physicist to work out the exact angle at which to position your club when playing golf, but science and technology are making it a whole lot easier with swing training technology, which brings real-time body positioning analysis to everyday golfers with the help of a handy app. The app ‘tells’ golfers exactly how to position their body and gives them top information on how to do better next time. Of course, the app won’t fix deeper problems such as weak muscles in the shoulder and back. Top level athletes will also need to regularly carry out specific training programs for golf, which include strength training for key muscle groups. In essence, performing the right swing depends on issues like back strength, so you may need to address this first to perfect your game.

Head and Neck Support for Motor Sports

Dale Earnhardt’s death on the track at the Daytona 500 race revealed the extent to which the head and neck area are vulnerable in motor sports. HANS devices have been created by scientists to stop the head from whipping forwards and backwards in the event of an accident, and to lend more support to the neck. The device is U-shaped and is positioned behind the neck, with two ‘arms’ that extend over the pectorals. Over 140,000 devices have already been sold worldwide.

Wearable Computers and Hawk-Eye Camera Systems

Wearable computers are allowing both players and managers to assess a player’s level of fatigue, hydration levels, etc. This type of information is vital to avoid heart attacks and other major health events from taking place on the field. Smart fabrics will enable athletes to glean even more information, including heart function data and movement of the body’s center of mass. Scientists have stated that the future could take us beyond wearables. The Hawk-Eye camera system is currently used to obtain information on running biomechanics and other metrics during games of elite players. The NBA, meanwhile, relies on Second Spectrum’s computer vision technology to obtain information about player positioning and other 3D data such as ball and referee positioning.

We have presented just a few ways in which science and technology are enabling athletes to perform more optimally, but also to stay safe. Wearable devices and fabrics, aerial camera systems, and new safety gear are making sport a much more scientifically accurate and appealing pursuit. Information is power, and nowhere is this truer than on the field or track.

Evolution of Ergonomics: From Early Man to Modern Human

by Jackie Edwards

The word ergonomics was first used in 1857 in a philosophical narrative by Polish scientist Prof. Wojciech Jastrzebowski. The term derives its name from two Greek words – Ergon, which means ‘work’ and Nomos, which translates to ‘natural law,’ literally translating into ‘how to work according to nature.’ So, ergonomics is a scientific discipline involved in the design and creation of safe and comfortable workspaces so as to best utilize a person’s abilities and boost productivity.

For example, viewing cute pictures to increase workplace productivity is also an important discovery in the field of ergonomics which increases work efficiency by enhancing the mood of workers. In layman language, ergonomics refers to designing products, environments, and systems where people are involved so as to minimize risks of harms or injuries and also, related mental or emotional stress. Interestingly, this principle has been in existence for a long time even though the term itself may have just been coined in recent history.

Where it all began

Ergonomics has been in the very cradle of human evolution, ever since early man began making tools from bones and pebbles to make tasks easier. Archaeological findings have revealed sophisticated ergonomic devices, tools, and equipment from ancient Egyptian dynasties and 5th Century BCE Greece. Several centuries later, we still use axes, plows, hammers and several such tools only in their more improvised and sophisticated designs to fit into our advanced living environment. However, it was not until the 16th century that ergonomics began to be understood and studied. It all started with Bernardino Ramazinni’s medical journal ‘De Morbis Artificum (Diseases of Workers)’ which brought to light the various injuries incurred by his patients, resulting from unfavorable conditions in their occupations and workspaces.

Industrial Revolution

During the historical Industrial Revolution of 19th century, ergonomics was at the pinnacle of attention, being studied like never before. Spinning Jennies and rolling mills were invented to speed up work. Frederick W. Taylor pioneered the process of ergonomics by evaluating the best and easier ways of accomplishing a task and eventually succeeded in improving worker productivity and wages in a shoveling job. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, on the other hand, standardized materials, work processes and tools and began time motion analysis to make workflow efficient and less tiring.

World War II

With World War II, ergonomics reached a newer height, prompting research in man and machine interaction. This began to prominently reveal itself especially in the design of military systems like naval ships, aircraft and weaponry. The complex devices from radar to aircraft that were manufactured for the war began to demand a better grip of ergonomics without which there was a continuous risk of loss of personnel or equipment. In 1943, a U.S Army lieutenant, Alphonse Chapanis brought to light how so-called “pilot errors” could be greatly reduced. That is when logical and easier to understand control buttons were born in the cockpits of aircraft.

Ergonomics today

Work or ergonomic-related musculoskeletal injuries contributed to a third of day-offs from workplaces as per data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2013. And, most of these were reported from sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, construction, transportation and warehousing, healthcare and entertainment/recreation. These injuries have not only sparked concern but with it, have also spiked renewed interest in the subject of ‘ergonomics’ to inspire futuristic designs for new age tools tailored to modern technological advances and lifestyle of humans.

Ergonomics may be a relatively new term and newer field of study. However, it has been a part of our life since the very moment of Stone Age. Today, Ergonomics is studied in-depth with specializations in cognitive, organizational and physical sciences.

Health Benefits of Gaming

by Marcus Clarke

Apparently it was the Buddha who first said ‘health is the greatest gift’. He was certainly right. However, he probably never imagined that one of the ways we can receive this ‘greatest gift’ is video games, as much research is now showing that gaming can be extremely good for your health, in a bewildering number of ways.

For example, gaming can increase the strength and size of the brain areas associated with a number of key skills, such as motor skills and spatial awareness. So gaming can actually increase the size of your brain! As well as this, gaming can reduce sensations of pain. Studies on soldiers who had been injured in battle, in which half were asked to play on a virtual reality game and half acted as a control group, found that those who played video games were less likely to need pain meds. Amazing! There’s more! Gaming can slow down cognitive decline in the elderly and those that are suffering from degenerative neurological disorders. As such, gaming in this sense has many public health applications.

Have you recently suffered from some sort of trauma? Fear not. Gaming may be the answer, and research has shown that gaming can minimize the effects of trauma. One study showed, for example, that those who had recently undergone surgery and played video games were likely to recover more quickly. Likewise, those who had undergone traumatic events were likely to have fewer flashbacks and after effects if they played video games.

So, gaming is not just about fun, and vegging out on a weekend after a hard week at work. It can actually have really positive effects, particularly on your cognitive health. Likewise, modern games are increasingly good for your cardio health, as games become more active, and your body becomes the controller.

To find out more about how gaming can be good for your, see the infographic below from Computer Planet.

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7 Health Benefits of Chocolate — Backed by Science!

If you like chocolate, you’ll be happy to know that in moderation, this tasty snack is actually good for you. No, this isn’t us just trying to find a way to justify our chocolate habit — there’s some actual science here! Whether you like the occasional Snickers bar or just can’t get enough of dark chocolate, here are some of the science-backed health benefits of cocoa.

First, a Disclaimer

Don’t rush out to the grocery store just yet. It’s important to know what type of chocolate to look for. Some types of chocolate have different health benefits, while others might not have any benefit at all.

First, make sure your chocolate is real instead of what is known in the industry as compound chocolate, which uses cocoa powder for chocolate flavoring but has no cocoa butter in the product. It’s easier for some manufactures — cocoa butter can be difficult to work with in large batches — but it isn’t good chocolate. If your ingredients show other forms of fat, like vegetable oil or soybean oil instead of cocoa butter, skip the candy bar.

Now, on with the show!

1. Chocolate Helps Your Heart

Chocolate can be a great tool to help you mend a broken heart, but it can also help keep your ticker healthy. One study, completed over nine years by Swedish scientists, found that one to two servings of dark chocolate every week helped to reduce the risk of heart failure in adults.

It wasn’t Hershey bars these individuals were eating, though — milk chocolate is so heavily processed that it doesn’t contain the kind of beneficial components dark chocolate does. Dark chocolate contains flavonoids, which help to protect the heart when eaten in moderation. These are the same antioxidants that are found in things like red wine, onions and tea.

2. High-Quality Tasty Nutrition

Believe it or not, a bar of high-quality dark chocolate can help you get a good portion of your daily recommended value for minerals like iron, magnesium, copper and manganese. A 100-gram portion also contains 11 grams of fiber.

Now, you don’t want to eat 100 grams regularly — that equals about 3.5 ounces, or 600 calories worth of chocolate — but even a small portion offers a host of nutritional benefits.

3. Candy Helps You Lose Weight

This might sound like we’re making stuff up, but it’s true: Dark chocolate in moderation can help aid weight loss. This is due to the fact that it is more filling than milk chocolate — due in part to that higher fiber content we mentioned a moment ago — and it also helps to lessen your craving for other sweet, fatty or salty foods that could make it harder to stick to your diet.

4. Keep That Cholesterol in Check

One of the main components in chocolate, cocoa butter, is a fat — and we’ve been told for years to avoid fat because it can be detrimental to our cholesterol levels. As it turns out, though, dark chocolate can help to both raise HDL — the good cholesterol — and lower total LDL in men with already elevated cholesterol.

The flavanoids in dark chocolate also help to prevent LDL from oxidizing. When bad cholesterol reacts with free radicals, it becomes oxidized and starts damaging tissues.

5. Pack It With Your Sunscreen

This is a benefit that only appears after you eat chocolate for a while — 12 weeks, minimum, according to researchers — but eating dark chocolate regularly can help to protect your skin from sun damage. This is no replacement for sunscreen, but regular chocolate consumption can more than double your minimal erythema dose or MED. This is just a fancy term for the amount of sun exposure it takes before you start to get sunburned.

The flavanoids in dark chocolate help to improve blood flow to the skin. They can also help increase skin density and overall hydration. Don’t skip your sunscreen, though — this might be an added level of protection, but it won’t keep you from getting sunburned during a day at the beach.

6. Not Just Good For The Body

In addition to helping with skin and heart health and cholesterol, chocolate has also shown signs of being good for your brain. Studies have shown that chocolate can help improve blood flow to the brain, which can help improve brain function. This benefit has been primarily studied in young adults. It has also been shown to help improve cognitive function in elderly patients who suffer from cognitive impairments.

7. Candy to Prevent Diabetes — Not as Crazy as It Sounds

People with diabetes are generally told to avoid candy and other sugars, but dark chocolate could actually be the key to help diabetic patients regulate their symptoms or prevent diabetes from developing at all. A small study out of Italy found that patients who ate dark chocolate every day for 15 days displayed reduced insulin sensitivity.

The amount of chocolate that was consumed during the trial equaled about 480 calories, so it’s important to consider the amount of chocolate you’re eating. However, if it can help reduce insulin sensitivity, it might be worth it to add a square or two of dark chocolate to your diet.

Chocolate isn’t as bad for you as your dentist or doctor might be telling you — eating high-quality dark chocolate in moderation can be a great way to improve your health over time. Just make sure you’re eating your chocolate in addition to a healthy diet.

Determining methods of Automated Nucleic Acid Extraction

By Lorenzo Gutierrez

Scientific exploration- Determining methods of Automated
Nucleic Acid Extraction
The human body is a complex structure made up of various cells and genes. The central system of genetic identification for humans is focused on one’s DNA, that is deoxyribonucleic acid. It is present in nearly all living organisms as it defined as the main constituent of chromosomes. With the introduction of a variety of communicable diseases, it is pertinent to researches to be able to extract DNA. They do this to run various tests to see how best the world’s population can extend its life cycle through science.

What is Automated Nucleic Acid Extraction?
This speaks to the removal of DNA by mechanical/ automated means. Extraction by this mean is deemed to be more accurate and more beneficial to science as it lessens the margin of error, or so it is alleged. “Automated nucleic acid extraction systems can improve workflow and decrease variability in the clinical laboratory.”[1]There are various methods that can be accessed. As science evolves so does technology and technological research is by extension advanced.

Methods of Automated Nucleic Acid Extraction
There are various methods of extraction and various machinery used by researchers on a day to day basis in efforts to attain much needed samples of DNA. This is done as the fight towards cures for many communicable diseases is a rather tedious process. Let us face the fact that technology is put in place to lighten the work load of many and aid in movements towards more accurate results. Many companies have delved into the creation of different extractors that each operate at varied levels. Some of which were created to be work horses, thereby being able to complete massive amounts of work while others are able to only produce an average turn out. Laboratories vary by size and as such, they would be able to best choose an extractor of their liking to perform their work functions.

There is the manual means of extractions, you can refer to this as good old reliable. Researchers are incredibly consumed by work when they have to utilize manual extraction methodologies as it is incredibly hands on. Of course, there is the usage of some level of technology however, the researcher would need to be present to adjust variables and incorporate other items as the need arises.
Automated Extractors allow researchers the ability to set their research in the machines and be able to leave to complete other tasks. Researchers aren’t needed at every step during automated extractions as technology does most of the work once it is that the samples are prepared and placed therein. It must be noted that with the presence of great technology, companies also incur a greater cost. Where a manual extraction could be performed at approximately $5, the work of an automated extractor could range anywhere from $7.60 to $12.95 per sample.
You may find that, true to human nature, researchers will gravitate towards a more established extractor as it had been around longer and there had been numerous reports done on it. However, it is important to still venture out and try new machinery as prior to the one that is most renowned became that way it was merely extractor X for argument sake, an unknown machine with the potential to create an ease of workload.

Research of two methods [2]
For the purposes of this article we will look at a particular research performed by a group of research scientists, their information will be provided below. After comparing the three methods of extraction, It could be determined that the first extractor; X was reasonably efficient as it varied from 86% to 107% of manual. The second extractor Y’s recovery efficiency in comparison to the manual method varied from 83%-107%. Though the results varied marginally the true variation of extraction came by way of cost. As the extractor X was the most costly means at $12.95 per sample, whilst the Y costed $7.60. There is also a key difference in operational actions as the X doesn’t allow for the researcher to walk away, leaving the machine to perform its extraction. The X also needs a higher volume of samples to perform its task. Automated Nucleic Extraction is a field of science that is beneficial to researchers as it yields greater results than manual extraction. It is however a more costly approach.

[1] Dundas N., Leos N.K., Mitui M., Revell P., Rogers B.B. (2008 June 13) Comparison of automated
nucleic acid extraction methods with manual extraction.

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2438199/
Retrieved August 3, 2017

Mountain Dew vs. Coke – Which One is Worse

Here’s the quick and hard truth – Mountain Dew is worse for your teeth when compared to Coca Cola. As interpreted by a young scientist, from a simple yet sharp experiment he conducted, there are two main reasons why Mountain Dew is worse thank Coke.

Firstly, Mountain Dew uses citric acid, while Coke uses phosphoric acid to give them their tangy zing. So, since citric acid is an organic acid, it can breakdown organic matter more easily than the inorganic acid used in coke. This is due to the buffering capacity of citric acid (and similar low molecular weight organic acids).

Secondly, even though as a whole Coke has a lower pH of 2.5 as compared to that of Mountain Dew (pH 3.1), which means Coke is six times more acidic owing to the logarithmic nature of this measurement, there’s more to it than just that.
pH measures the strength of the acid in a solution. pH does change due to dilution, but it needs massive dilution to change the pH.

Thus it is more appropriate here to measure the amount of acid actually present in the drink. Which can be done by measuring the Titratable Acidity (TA). TA is the amount of acid molecules present (both protonated and unprotonated) in milligrams or grams per liter of solution available for interaction with the tooth surface.

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The Kiss that can make you go Deaf

With youngsters blaring Spotify on their headphones loud enough for the whole bus to hear, it is only natural for elders to advice you to keep your iPods turned down. Forget that for a minute and listen to this.

Little do we know that a simple and innocent kiss can do a far worse damage to your ears. It is something that sounds like fiction, more like an urban legend and seems like a story I understand, is tough to believe.In case you do not believe me, I have included references at the end of the article. It is weird, but I believe it is important for people to be informed about it.

Symptoms:

Kissing on the ear, a kiss that involves suction, has the ability to create a negative pressure on your ear drum and can cause serious injury to it. It can cause intense pain due to the pulling of ossicular chain and due to the ear drum getting dislodged. The symptoms may vary anything from a constant ringing sound, hearing loss to certain kind of sounds, distortion or even complete hearing loss.

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HIV Infecting in Real-Time

By Anupum Pant

Scientists from Yale have been able to image HIV infecting a mice in real time by using florescent markers on the virus. A special technique called the two photon laser scanning microscopy  to image what was happening under the skin was used. The virus appears in green colour and helps them understand how it spreads.

[Read more] [Paper]

Tooth in Eye Surgery

By Anupum Pant

Back in the 60s a very odd technique was developed by doctors in Italy, as a desperate measure to restore vision in a damaged eye. Their process involved using a tooth from the person’s mouth and putting it in the eye for them to be able to see again. That was in the 60s. The procedure has since been done on hundreds of patients successfully and is still being done. In the US, this procedure was done only in the 2009 for the first time. Sounds weird, but true.

Also known as modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (or MOOKP) among doctors, is done in 3 basic steps. First, a tooth is removed from the patient’s mouth and a hole is drilled into it. A section of the cheek is then removed to form the soft, mucus tissue around her pupil. The hole is then used to support a prosthetic lens which is used in the eye. Basically, the tooth is used as a framework to put the artificial prosthetic lens in the eye.

It is rarely used, only in desperate cases where there are no less invasive alternatives to fix the eye. Other times donated cornea transplant from a deceased donor can be used. But the tooth in eye surgery has a major advantage over that because in this technique, the cheek and tooth tissue used both belong to the same person and there is very less chance of the immune system rejecting the composite.

via [ABC news]