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TDR TB!, Frying E. Coli, Food In Science, Extreme Caffeine, Extinct Tortoises Exist, Protein Resurrection, Lots Of Stars, Cheap DNA Sequencing, Andromeda Up Close, Guns And A-holes, And Much More…
Disclaimer, Disclaimer. Disclaimer!!!
The world as we know it is not the world as it is but the world as we have learned it
This learning of the world which we people engage in comes in several basic forms which can then be sub-categorize-able and infinitely cross referenced throughout a lifetime
Pulling from memory, from experience, from structured study, from second hand here-say, and from circumspect suspicion of nostalgic superstitious notions… we form knowledge of the world.
Making how we learn as important as what we learn…
Over many tens of thousands of years we humans have been learning and this has led to many interesting conclusions, almost all of which had to be proven wrong in order for the right answers to be found…
And finding the right answers became the passion and purpose of generations of scientists, working out the facts, trimming off the false…
Until we reached the modern age of knowing the world!
A world that still has as much room for exploration as there are minds ready to explore it…
And if this wasn’t enough, we have discovered that for every one of the 70 sextillion stars in the newly known universe, there are several more worlds in orbit around them…
It seems the work of knowing about a world… has just begun
Just like this week in science… coming up next
TDR TB!
WHO found drug resistant TB last spring. Predicted 2 million cases of MDR (first-choice drug resistant) and XDR (resistant to three first-line drugs) by 2012. Instead, we’ve now found TDR TB… that is to say, totally drug resistant TB.
Frying E. coli
“A short burst of low voltage” could kill even large amounts of e. coli in meat that has been contaminated. The method promises a way to sterilize beef without harsh chemicals. Could this be used for other hazardous bacterium in other food products?
Food in Science…
Cheese
The fungus on cheeses with thick rinds could be isolated to coat household surfaces to keep it clean. Cheese-counter, anyone?
Salmon
Isolated DNA from Salmon could be used as “memory/data storage.”
What other examples of food being used in science do you know about? Let us know! Email me at kirsten@thisweekinscience.com or post a comment on our website.
Extreme caffeine
A new study shows that people who drink four or more cups of coffee a day have a 50% less chance of developing Type II Diabetes.
Get a free audiobook at Audible.com!
Are you reading along with the TWIS Bookclub? This month, check out ‘Fool Me Twice’ by Shawn Lawrence Otto.
Finding extinct tortoises
A thought-to-be-extinct lineage of Galapagos Tortoise has been found again! That-is, one-fifth of all Galapagos tortoises sampled had DNA from this lineage. In fact, the DNA from many of the tortoises indicated they were first-generation hybrids, so these tortoises should still be around (even though we can’t find them), as they live around 150 years!
And, ancient molecules
A “timeline of protein history” was developed by analyzing single-fold proteins. The first appearance of aerobic processes in organisms occurred around the same time as the first oxygen-generating enzyme – manganese catalase. This most-likely was produced in response to a high level of hydrogen peroxide in glacial melts.
Many Earths
The majority of the 100 billion stars in the milky way have planets like Earth, Venus, Mercury or Mars. The estimate is that 10 billion of these stars appear to have planets in the “habitable zone.”
Affordable DNA sequencing???
The $1000 genome has arrived! The “Ion Proton Sequencer” should be available within a year and could sequence your genome within a day. Will more readily available DNA sequencing revolutionize medicine?
Hubble Sees Andromeda
The Hubble Telescope has taken the sharpest visible-light image ever made of an external galaxy. Andromeda actually has a “double nucleus” due to a super-massive black hole.
Thank you NCBI ROFL. Guns and people.
A recent study concluded through saliva testing that interaction with guns most likely makes you more aggressive.
And, scientists completed the world’s largest quantum calculation taking 84 qubits and 270 milliseconds.
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I'm the host of this little science show. 
You guys talked about 2 very important topics!
1) $1,000 genomes. I think you were right on about the risks of Doctors (and maybe others) using this info improperly and incorrectly. Unfortunately it is like any other new development. Professionals are bound to use something new in a way it shouldn’t be. And not necessarily in a malicious way… just out of ignorance. And people will both be critical that Doctors are using it too much as well as not enough. Hopefully, the majority will be wise enough to use the info sparingly as it becomes more available to minimize the abuses that can occur. Its just a natural cycle for anything new.
2) Caffeine: Move aside Nostradamas… Woody Allen has you beat! The movie Sleeper has a famous scene about how in the future, they realized that smoking, alcohol, and red meat are all GREAT for you! Well, red wine is proven good… now coffee in excessive quantities…. my only question is, when do I start smoking at my steak dinner?!?
On the subject of caffeine and coffee being good for you – on this week’s show, Justin made a comment along the lines of “there’s no study showing coffee is bad for you” or something like that. I thought there have been studies which indicated that long-term consumption of high amounts of caffeine could cause stress-related problems on the body?
Am I confused, or perhaps Justin was being facetious? I couldn’t quite tell.
On the caffeine subject: there was a study I remember reading about in the Salt Lake Tribune (~15 years ago) about the reduction in diabetes in connection to coffee consumption. I still remember the quantity as 64 oz and wondering if it was a caused by the coffee or a function of the types of people that drink that much coffee (i.e. type A’s, etc). This might shed some light on the subject, but i would like more work to sus out how much effect the chemicals found in coffee have.