Crystals And Catalysts

Today may be a normal day for all of us, we get up to go to work, university or school and carry out our daily routine… but this is most of us - not all of us. We may be the lucky ones who have not been cursed with dreaded migraines, causing the most unfortunate of us to seek refuge in our bedrooms like owls who only appear during the night. Robyn*, a migraine sufferer has seen her mother and her auntie go through a difficult time with migraines and at the age of 40, she became a victim herself. On the days she yearned to be outside, sociable, proactive, she was imprisoned in a dark room, no sound, no lights and no smells (they all make her headaches worse and make her throw up). She’s tried a lot of medications, none seem to at least shorten the time period that the dark cloud takes over.  But now, thanks to science, she may be able to experience a brighter future. This is because of a new advancement in migraine history. The first migraine drug to prove successful in 20 y...

Doesn't that sound crazy? After years of research, scientists have discovered that we have a new organ in our bodies. You'd think that with all of the dissections of the human body over 100 years of anatomy study, that we would know everything about the human body by now, but no! There is still more to learn and I wonder what else do we not know about our bodies? The new organ is located in our digestive system, specifically connecting the abdomen and intestines and it looks like this and it's called the MESENTERY: Image courtesy of The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology and Science Alert For hundreds of years, the mesentery had been considered a fragmented structure made up of multiple separate parts. However, research by Professor of Surgery at UL’s Graduate Entry Medical School, J Calvin Coffey, found the mesentery is one, continuous structure. J Calvin Coffey, University of Limerick  said: “In the paper, which has been peer reviewed and ass...

This blog post was previously titled: Females are less prone to influenza than males, thanks to Estrogen.  E strogen and its derivatives have been found to protect against respiratory infections such as influenza, in females more than males. This new study was published in the American Journal of Physiology-- Lung Cellular and Physiology. A virus usually works/makes you ill by invading a cell in your body and making and replicating itself within the host cell. After being released from the host cell, the virus can go on to infect other cells in the body and also other people.   The less a virus replicates, the less severe the infection and the lower the risk it will be spread onto other people. The researchers used human nasal epithelial cells (hNECs) from male and female donors- which are the main cells which the flu virus targets - and exposed the nasal cells to  17β-estradiol   (i.e estrogen) or select estrogen modulators (SERMs) (these include na...

Its not easy living with type 2 diabetes and regulating your own blood sugar levels, through diet and exercise. Around 9% of the worlds population live with type 2 diabetes, with 80% coming from poor background and developing countries and it is now being found in young adults and children, after it was renowned for being as an "adult-onset" disease. Type 2 diabetes c auses too much glucose in the blood due to the pancreas not producing enough insulin -- a hormone which breaks down glucose into energy in the cells -- together with insulin resistance, a condition in which the body responds poorly to insulin. The scientific team at  Newcastle  university  found  that by reducing the fat accumulating in the pancreas, even only one gram of fat, via  weight  loss can reverse diabetes.  Via bariatric surgery   In the clinical trials, 18 people with Type 2 diabetes and 9 people who did not have diabetes were measured for weight...

Stem cells are the clean slates of the human body. They're the cells (usually found in bone marrow) that are stored till they have a significant job. Stem cells remain stem cells until they need to differentiate into a specific type of cell i.e  a heart cell, a kidney cell or even a skin cell. New research goes into the way stem cells differentiate and what goes into the process. The study (conducted by the Institute of Biotechnology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)) suggests that asymmetric apportioning of old cellular components during cell division may represent an anti-aging mechanism utilized by stem cells. They focus on tissue stem cells, that continuously renew our tissues which divide asymmetrically to produce 2 types of daughter cells: one a new stem cell, the second one will become the differentiating cell of a tissue. Stem cells undergo this technique to prevent cellular damage. Extra damage can cause stem cell fatigue and less tissue regeneration an...

It is everyone’s desire to have beautiful, clear skin but sometimes that’s not always possible. Especially in our teenage years spots start to appear and if you’re really unlucky it turns into acne.  Although acne can take a long time to go away, there are lot of treatments for it available today; and here’s the newest, method of acne treatment & prevention. Pimples form when follicles get blocked by sebum, an oily, waxy substance secreted by sebaceous glands located adjacent to the follicle. Excretion of sebum is a natural process and functions to lubricate and waterproof the skin. Occasionally, however, the openings of the follicles (pores) get blocked, typically by bits of hair, skin, dirt or other debris mixed in with the sebum. Overproduction of sebum is also a problem, which can be caused by hormones or medications. Changes in the skin, such as its thickening during puberty, can also contribute to follicle blockage. Whatever the cause, the accumulating sebum holds ...

This weeks Scientist of the Week #SOTW is Ahmed Zewail, the famous, Egyptian scientist & Nobel laureate, for his amazing research in femtochemistry:  studying chemical reactions across femtoseconds (1 fs= 10 -15  seconds).   Biography: Born on February 26, 1946 in a city not so far from Alexandria, Egypt; Zewail “lived an enjoyable childhood”.  His family’s dream was to see Zewail achieve a high degree abroad and return to Egypt to become a university professor.  Zewail completed his degree in Alexandria University with First Class Honours and it is the same place where he realised his strong passion for science especially the physical sciences.   Zewail then went onto complete his Masters and PhD in Alexandria University where he was employed as a demonstrator (“Moeid”) where he gave lectures to undergraduates.  He then travelled o the United States where he completed his PhD in the University of Pennsylvania with advisor Robin M. Hochs...

After my previous blog post Science: It's a Girl Thing  I have decided to start a new segment where I will be featuring one scientist from different branches of science and could be male or female and provide a profile / case study dedicated to that scientist every week. This segment will be: Scientist of the Week and will be posted every Friday  commencing from Friday 6th March 2015 ! Can you guess which scientist I will be starting with?

Pineapple is almost everyone's favorite fruit and favorite juice. but not only is it good to consume, its also great for chemical reactions and green chemistry; cleaner ways to make pharmaceutical products.  An efficient and greener synthesis of a series of dihydropyrimidinone (DHPMs) derivatives were accomplished via three-component one-pot cyclocondensation between substituted aryl aldehydes, diketone/ke- toester and urea. This solvent free approach is totally nonpolluting having several advantages such as shorter reaction time, mild reaction conditions, simple workup and reduced environmental impact.

Back in 1631 the emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal for his deceased wife, Mumtaz Mahal, to honor her memory . It is regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world. Sadly this wonder is becoming tarnished by the day. Due to pollution, the Taj Mahal marble is starting to turn yellow. Even though, every couple of years the mausoleum is given a clay mask to remove all the grime and restore the sparkling white marble, the grime returns over and over again every few years.

Can you really catch a cold when it’s cold outside? It turns out that actually staying warm can be useful and our mums were right in telling us to wrap up and keep warm and to wear a jacket when we go out.

My previous post was on the success of research for finding a vaccine for the Hepatitis-C virus , this posts looks into a new way to prevent Hep-C along with other blood transmitted diseases in a magnificent way. Since using sharp, medical needles are risky and have been a transmitter of diseases, when used incorrectly; it’s suggested that healthcare professionals use the needle only once and with the correct procedure and is disposed of safely. But there’s also an alternative option, which is much safer and painless. Micro needles affixed to plaster are painless and safe to administer and they don’t get through to the nerves, which almost gives a Velcro-like texture. The micro-needles are made of soft contact lens like material and at their dry state, the needles are hard and can penetrate the skin (50 microns) and once in the skin, can rapidly take up fluid from the interstitial fluid, into the micro-needles, and swell.

Ozone is typically associated with the ozone layer that surrounds the Earth and any articles about it are usually about the size of the hole in the ozone layer and how and what affects it every day. But that isn't what this article is about. This blog post is about how ozone can be bubbled into water to make nano-bubble water that is a powerful antiseptic agent that can be used to treat periodontitis and other dental related problems. The new research was published in the journal: Science and Technology of advanced materials.

First of all I’d like to dedicate this blog post to my late uncle who was a victim of Parkinson’s disease. May he rest in peace… Parkinson’s disease was discovered by James Parkinson in 1867 and had initially called it “Shaking palsey”. Parkinson’s is the 2 nd most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s, and can be identified by shaking hands (tremor), rigidity and posture instability; cased by the loss of neurons in the Substantia Nigra (in the brain), and the lack of dopamine (dopamine smoothes out skeletal muscle movements) due to the death of dopaminergic neurones in the Substantia Nigra (black substance) in the brain and also the accumulation of lewy bodies. Other symptoms of Parkinson’s are shuffling gait, depression and anger.

“Breaking news: Ebola virus has been declared as an international public health emergency by the World Health organization” That sentence was the first thing I saw when I logged into Facebook as I’ve started planning and writing this article. What is the Ebola virus (EBOV)? BBC Ebola Virus The Ebola virus is a very terrible disease and lethal if caught and it has a high fatality rate of 60% (WHO 01/04/2014) [1] Ebola is not an airborne virus but it can be spread via bodily fluids such as sweat and its recommended that you don’t shake hands with anyone who could potential carry the disease or has recovered and still in recuperation period.