Oct 08
Malaria research has been advancing rapidly in recent years
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Sep 24
Google Science Fair 2013 came to a close yesterday, as 15 young scientists aged between 13 and 18 demonstrated their projects in front of Google’s expert panel. With over a thousand submissions worldwide, only four entrants were able to take home prizes, but it was 17-year-old Eric Chen who walked away with the biggest prize. By combining computer modeling and biological studies, Chen’s research focused on leads for a “new type of anti-flu medicine” to help fight the spread of the influenza virus. Australian Viney Kumar and Canadian Ann Makosinski took home awards for an early warning app for oncoming emergency vehicles and a flashlight that operates without batteries or moving parts, respectively. This year, voters got the chance to affect the outcome, awarding a new prize to Elif Bilgin, from Istanbul, who showed it was possible to create plastic from banana peel. Each winner took home a trophy built from Lego, as well as prizes from National Geographic and Scientific American. Chen, however, walked away with a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands and his school gets both $10,000 and a Hangout with the boffins at CERN. Well deserved, we’d say.
Source: Official Google Blog
Jan 25
Scientists Are Making a Vaccine for Alcoholism That Will Give You Terrible Hangovers
Posted in: Today's Chili
Though most borderline alcoholics don’t need an anti-fun vaccine for alcoholism, those that drink a little too much could probably use the world’s first vaccine for alcoholism. Made by Scientists in Chile, the vaccine “works” by screwing over people who drink. Seriously, once you pump yourself with the juice, you’ll experience the worst hangover of your life. More »
Oct 22
Craig Venter, the über-DNA jockey who quietly sequenced the human genome using his own DNA, then made “synthetic life” by outfitting a gutted bacterium with homemade genes, says his next trick will be emailing biological molecules, using 3D biological printers. The move that could revolutionise healthcare – and biological warfare. More »
Aug 15
You’ve maybe never heard of Bacillus Calmette–Guérin—it sounds kinda French after all, so why would you? But scratch a little deeper and you’ll find that BCG, as it’s commonly known, is one of the most overlooked wonder-drugs of our time. More »
Jun 30
After working in a hospital for over a decade, I’ve been around many people that had major health problems related to smoking. Combine the health issues with the fact that smoking is just absolutely disgusting to me, I think everyone should stop smoking. Especially my UPS driver, who routinely delivers me packages that smell like a used ashtray.
My dad used to smoke so I can appreciate how hard it is for people to quit, though. Scientists have been working on a vaccine that is designed to flood the body with an antibody to attack nicotine as it enters the body, rendering it useless as a source of pleasure.
The researchers are conducting a study in mice and have found that the so-called smoking vaccine is up to 85% effective at blocking nicotine in a mouse brain. The researchers say years of additional research is needed before the vaccine can be tested on people.
“As far as we can see, the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction from smoking is to have these Pac-Man-like antibodies on patrol, clearing the blood as needed before nicotine can have any biological effect.” The challenge according to the researchers has been to develop a vaccine that is able to produce enough antibodies to stop nicotine from entering the brain and delivering the effects smokers crave.
[via BBC]
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