Secretagentpeptidebond - Mostly Harmless.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Reaction stir and oil bubble.

Babel Tower: A Kinetic Mirrored Ziggurat Reflects the Surrounding Iranian Landscape / By Shirin Abedinirad and Gugo Torelli.

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Maggie Aderin-Pocock was born in London, England on March 9, 1968. She earned a degree in physics and a PhD in mechanical engineering, in spite of her dyslexia, and went on to become a research fellow at the University College London Department of Science and Technology Studies and work on projects such as the James Webb Telescope and the Gemini Observatory. She is currently a presenter on BBC Four’s program The Sky At Night.

Happy birthday, Maggie Aderin-Pocock!

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A little friendly fire for @yo-yo-yoshiko. Don’t expect any more of these, I want points dammit!

[ Find me on Art Fight! ]

Silica nanoparticles could be used to repair damaged teeth

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have shown how the development of coated silica nanoparticles could be used in restorative treatment of sensitive teeth and preventing the onset of tooth decay.

The study, published in the Journal of Dentistry, shows how sub-micron silica particles can be prepared to deliver important compounds into damaged teeth through tubules in the dentine.

The tiny particles can be bound to compounds ranging from calcium tooth building materials to antimicrobials that prevent infection.

Professor Damien Walmsley, from the School of Dentistry at the University of Birmingham, explained, “The dentine of our teeth have numerous microscopic holes, which are the entrances to tubules that run through to the nerve. When your outer enamel is breached, the exposure of these tubules is really noticeable. If you drink something cold, you can feel the sensitivity in your teeth because these tubules run directly through to the nerve and the soft tissue of the tooth.”

“Our plan was to use target those same tubules with a multifunctional agent that can help repair and restore the tooth, while protecting it against further infection that could penetrate the pulp and cause irreversible damage.”

The aim of restorative agents is to increase the mineral content of both the enamel and dentine, with the particles acting like seeds for further growth that would close the tubules.

Previous attempts have used compounds of calcium fluoride, combinations of carbonate-hydroxypatite nanocrystals and bioactive glass, but all have seen limited success as they are liable to aggregate on delivery to the tubules. This prevents them from being able to enter the opening which is only 1 to 4 microns in width.

However, the Birmingham team turned to sub-micron silica particles that had been prepared with a surface coating to reduce the chance of aggregation.

When observed using high definition SEM (Scanning Electron Microsopy), the researchers saw promising signs that suggested that the aggregation obstacle had been overcome.

Professor Zoe Pikramenou, from the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham, said, “These silica particles are available in a range of sizes, from nanometre to sub-micron, without altering their porous nature. It is this that makes them an ideal container for calcium based compounds to restore the teeth, and antibacterial compounds to protect them. All we needed to do was find the right way of coating them to get them to their target.  We have found that different coatings does change the way that they interact with the tooth surface.”

“We tested a number of different options to see which would allow for the highest level particle penetration into the tubules, and identified a hydrophobic surface coating that provides real hope for the development of an effective agent.”

Our next steps are to optimise the coatings and then see how effective the particles are blocking the communication with the inside of the tooth.  The ultimate aim is to provide relief from the pain of sensitivity.

University of Birmingham

Nanotechnology World Association

The use of 3-D printers has opened up the possibility of on-demand implants, prosthetics, and medical devices. This week, scientists reported that they were able to 3-D-print the first stable ear, bone, and muscle structures out of living cells and implant them in mice. The results were published in Nature Biotechnology. Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and an author on that paper, describes the challenges of 3-D printing living cells and how the technology could be used in bioengineering body parts.

ここが、地球か・・。 - そんなあなたに

A Living Cage

The typical eukaryotic, which basically covers every cell found in animals, plants, fungi, slime molds, protozoa and algae, is a packed place, crammed with a nucleus (itself containing six feet of tightly wound DNA), mitochondria, centrosomes, peroxisomes, lysosomes, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticula (both smooth and rough), actin filaments, Golgi vesicles and more.

All of these cellular elements are in constant action, buzzing with communication and the movement of molecules. The image above, produced by Maria Voigt at the RCSB Protein Data Bank, depicts a clathrin cage, which is essentially a little basket for carrying and moving things around inside cells. Clathrin derives from the Latin clatratus, which means lattice.

Cells have a lot of them. They’re used to transfer nutrients, import signaling receptors, mediate an immune response after sampling the world outside the cell and the clean-up of cellular debris. When not in use, the cages are broken up, to be reassembled when next needed.

The cage above is roughly 50 nanometers wide, a size almost too small to imagine. By comparison, there are 25.4 million nanometers in an inch. A sheet of paper is roughly 100,000 nanometers thick. A single strand of human DNA is 2.5 nanometers in diameter.

The image is one of this year’s winners of the Wellcome Image Awards.

While you see many varieties of the common mold in your house and garden, the scientific word to describe them has a fascinating history.  Aspergillus is a genus of 300 or so common molds found in all types of climates around the world.  The Aspergillus mold was first catalogued in 1729 by the Italian priest and biologist Pier Antonio Micheli. These molds are in the fungus kingdom and while almost all are microscopic, colonies of the mold are easily recognizable and can grow quite large. Viewing the fungi under a microscope, Micheli was reminded of the shape of an aspergillum, which is the Latin word for a holy water sprinkler, itself from Latin spargere meaning to sprinkle, and named the fungus for the shape of the sprinkler.

You can see the similarity above, in the image of a silver aspergillium next to a microscopic view of aspergillus mold next to a colony of aspergillus mold growing on a damp terra cotta pot.

Image of aspergillium courtesy of Andreas Püttmann under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.  Image of aspergillus and mold colony courtesy Kathie Hodge and the Cornell University Fungi team.  

Lifelike Illustrations and descriptions of edible Mushrooms. 

By Krombholz, JV,cs . 1831

Contributing Library: Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library

BioDivLibrary