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30th Mar 2008
Tuberculosis and Magnetic Bacteria
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This week we visit the Historic city of Edinburgh to put Scottish science under the microscope! We discover the incredible magnetic bacteria and find out how their bio-nano-magnets could help treat cancer. We find out how satellite images can help predict outbreaks of cholera, and talk about the twist in the tale of TB - drug resistant Tuberculosis has now been found in the UK, so what is this disease and how can we hope to treat it? Also, how scientists have used cloned stem cells to treat Parkinson's disease in mice, how a whiff of anaesthetic could sooth traumatic memories and why bonobo apes play it safe while chimps like to gamble. Plus, in Kitchen Science we find out how yeast makes fluffy bread and fizzy beer!
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News
Scientists have used cloning technology to cure mice with the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, using their own cells.Writing in Nature Medicine, Sloan-Kettering Institute researcher Viviane Tabar and her colleagues collected skin cells from the tails of mice with an experimental form of Parkinson's....
Could you carve a roast dinner using a knife that had no handle? Well this is almost what a squid has to do every time it uses its beak. Scientists at the University of California at Santa Barbara have discovered how a squid’s sharp, hard beak attaches to its soft, squidgy body, leading ...
A new study has shown that a whiff of anaesthetic might be able to wipe away bad memories and even prevent post-traumatic stress disorder.Writing in PNAS, UC Irvine scientists Larry Cahill and Michael Alkire describe how they gave volunteers either small amounts of the inhalational anaesthetic sivof...
It seems that rats are even smarter than we thought – they can learn a set of abstract rules and apply them to completely new situations – something we thought previously only humans, other primates and one or two species of bird can do.
When a toddler learns to speak and understand language, they ...
Kitchen Science
Find out what makes bread rise and champagne fizzy in this simple kitchen science.
QotW
Why should people lose their regional or foreign accent when they sing?
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Interviews
If you had the choice between a guaranteed reward or taking a risk, what would you go for? Most people will choose the guaranteed reward. But what about our closest relatives, the great apes?
Some bacteria live inside us, some live in freezing cold environments, others near the blistering heat of volcanoes in deep sea vents. You may not have known that some bacteria actually manufacture their own little magnets. Scientists are trying to find out exactly what they use them for and more im...
Could satellite images of the surface of the sea tell us when and where to expect deadly outbreaks of Cholera?
TB has been virtually eradicated from the UK and a whole generation have had hardly any contact from it so it’s easy for us to forget what a disparaging and serious problem it was for us in the past. A serious killer disease, but now we’re seeing something of a resurgence and not just a resurgence o...
Questions
How fast does my toothbrush vibrate?
Ben: I’m not really sure I know this is the best way to measure it. If anybody knows get in touch: Chris what do you think?
Chris: I think you may be on to something. When I was driving around in Australia last year a group of school children tried to measure vitamin C in foodstuffs as their school science project. They took an off-the-shelf substance, food or drink cordial which is well known-very powerful brand, full of vitamin C. They thought, ‘we’ll use that as the control because we know that will have lots of vitamin C and if we can detect that we know our experiment’s working.’ They kept getting a negative result. It turned out that the company were lying and saying it was full of vitamin C and there was none in it. They had to pay a very big fine and change all their labelling. It could be that with this sonic toothbrush there’s a little bit of adventurous advertising going on. I think if anyone else has a sonic toothbrush and they would like to record it, analyse the waveform. If in fact you’ve done this, please do experiment and then tell us how many cycles a second is it producing? Is there some misleading advertising going on?
Ben: It would be fascinating to find out and we’re really pleased, Mark, that you’re getting into Kitchen Science in this way.
So what do you think? Is this a good way to find out how fast a sonic toothbrush vibrates?
Why is illness worse at the end of the day?
We put this question to Dr Clifford Leen:
Clifford: When you’re ill your energy levels are a bit lower than usual. In the morning you’re fresh and if you use all the energy before the evening then you’ll feel tired. If you pace yourself and do work in small packets over the day you’ll probably be less tired. It’s like a battery.
Do humans navigate with tiny magnets?
We put this question to Dr Sarah Staniland:
Sarah: Well, there definitely is some research that’s definitely true for human populations. There are these particles of magnetite which is the iron oxide and we definitely have these nanoparticles of iron oxide in our brains too. There is compelling evidence to say that they do indeed have a navigational side to them.
Chris: There’ve been researchers who put things like pigeons and bats in magnetic fields and managed to remagnetise their internal compass so they go off-course.
Sarah: That’s right
Chris: If you remagnetise your bacteria do they go off course?
Sarah: Yes, they do!
Can mosquitoes transmit HIV?
We put this question to Dr Clifford Leen:
Clifford: No. The virus doesn’t replicate in a mosquito and also the inoculum which is the amount of blood that would be injected into the next person is so small that there’d be no infection.
Ben: So although the mosquito can carry the virus it doesn’t kill it off. The fact that it doesn’t breed inside the mosquito means that there’s not enough getting to the next person?
Clifford: Quite right.
Chris: With other diseases like dengue, for example, where it does have the ability to grow in a mosquito that’s why a mosquito’s so good at transmitting, I presume?
What is the white stuff in zits?
We put this question to Dr Clifford Leen:
Clifford: Well don’t think you should be squeezing the zits. The white stuff is made up of infection sometimes or sometimes just secretions from blocked-up sweat glands. Chris: What are the bugs doing? Are they infecting some kind of gland in the skin?Clifford: If it’s infected there’ll be germs in there but otherwise it’ll just be secretions from a blocked sweat gland.Chris: The bottom line is, don’t squeeze the zit but if you do it’s just dead debris.
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