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Plasma Device Kills Bacteria On Skin In Seconds
Ponca City, We love you writes "In medicine, plasma, the fourth state of matter, is already used for sterilizing surgical instruments; plasma works at the atomic level and is able to reach all surfaces, even the interior of hollow needle ends. Now the BBC reports that researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have demonstrated a plasma device that can rid hands, feet, or even underarms of bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA, by creating cold atmospheric plasma that produces a cocktail of chemicals that kills bacteria but is harmless to skin. 'The plasma produces a series of over 200 chemical reactions that involve the oxygen and nitrogen in air plus water vapor — there is a whole concoction of chemical species that can be lethal to bacteria,' says Gregor Morfill. 'It's actually similar to what our own immune system does.' The team says that an exposure to the plasma of only about 12 seconds reduces the incidence of bacteria, viruses, and fungi on hands by a factor of a million — a number that stands in sharp contrast to the several minutes hospital staff can take to wash using traditional soap and water. Morfill says that the approach can be used to kill the bacteria that lead to everything from gum disease to body odor and that the prototype is scalable to any size and can be produced in any shape."
As a nurse I would welcome this as I have to wash and disinfect my hands several times a day.
There was a scene on Babylon 5 where Sheridan and Garibaldi are killing time in a public restroom waiting for someone to leave (yeah, a Sci-Fi show that admits people go to the bathroom!), and Sheridan is shown "washing" his hands under what appears to be a disinfecting device...
Funny how you can often find references in fiction to things that later become reality...
http://marsandmore.com - Posters of space, spacecraft, and astronomy.
If it's germ free and not large enough to be visible, does it matter?
It does if you're a surgeon. There's something called the foreign body response, and we've seen it happen even with particles of the STERILE talc they line some surgical gloves with to make them easier to put on. Problems aren't only caused by bacteria. Depending on the person's immune response, virtually anything can cause a life-threatening reaction to normally "inert" things like nylon suture or titanium rods/sutures. Things like dirt and human hair are more likely to provoke a reaction.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Actually, there were 5 elements according to Aristole: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Aether. The fifth element only appears in the spheres beyond Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle#The_five_elements. Post Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, when it became apparent that objects in space were likely made of the same substances as other elements Aether was dropped. This didn't last long, since the classical elemental theory was already in decline. Robert Boyle's work in The Sceptical Chymist published in 1661 effectively ended the idea of the then four element theory. So four elements was really only an idea with widespread appeal to scientists and thinkers for about 50 years.
It will denature any protein at all. It doesn't harm the surface of your skin only because that is already composed of dead cells. Bacteria are about as likely to evolve resistance to fire or concentrated nitric acid.
And four compass directions: North, South, East, and West. The bible mentions the four corners of the (flat, square) Earth too. All these references to four! Before you know it, your post will get modded to Score: 4, Interesting.
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