Category: Slimey stuff
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How cleanliness can kill
The hygiene hypothesis is that our immune system requires the presence of pathogens to grow and function properly. The thinkin is that dirt ‘n’ muck provides a kinda training ground on which the immune system “learns” it’s trade when we’re all youngsters. So mothers who keep a-scrubbin and a-cleanin them germs away are actually doin’…
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Watching other Earths
One of the most extraordinary experiments in the history of science was carried out in 1993 when the NASA spacecraft Galileo flew past Earth on its way to Jupiter. Carl Sagan and pals analysed the data and concluded after much head scratchin that life on Earth was a distinct possibility. That was a dry run…
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Improving “in silico” drug discovery
Drug discovery is a time consuming business and ah don’t mean those Friday nights searchin’ for Berkeley frat parties. Now some Frenchmen have found a new way to do it that don’t involve no dealers, middle men or rolled up $20 notes. For decades now, drug companies have tried the suck it ‘n’ see approach…
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The personal genome machine
One cool way to sequence DNA is to pull it through a nanopore in some kinda membrane in which electrodes are embedded. As each nucleotide passes , it gets zapped by the electrodes to see what it is. (That’s the thinkin, anyway. Ain’t nobody built one a these yet.) Trouble is that it’s hard tell…