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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."
But I find it interesting that according to ancient alchemy there were four "elements" (fire, water, earth, and air), and according to modern science there are four "states of matter" (plasma, liquid, solid, and gaseous).
Modding "-1, Troll" is not a proper response if you disagree with me. Try reason.
Do you remember the article on /. about how excessive cleanliness isn't all that good for you? Yeah...
So how long until we see bacteria resistant to this device?
I want a plasma bathtub
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
...bacteria, I knew thee well...
As a nurse I would welcome this as I have to wash and disinfect my hands several times a day.
When does it come in gift size?
Qxe4
I thought a lot of the bacteria in and on humans were good ones, which are required to be fit and healthy and function properly. What happens to those?
Whereas an autoclave, which sterilizes using heat, only works on the proton, quark, and meringue pie levels?
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.
Washing hands is partly about physical scrubbing, which loosens things on the surface. How is this plasma going to replace that?
The big question is, how soon can we turn this into some sort of weapon?
Proverbs 21:19
Resistance is useless - we will make your sun go nova...
this belongs on the science equivalent of www.thedailywtf.com
plasma = uncontrolled mix of highly reactive chemicals
highly reactive chemicals = damage to skin at some level
thus we have that old item, the therapeutic index roughy ratio of harm to good
however,
highly reactive chemcials = bugs getting resistant
how ? learning to live deeper in the skin (bad for you)
learning to make enzymes that deto the highly reactive chemicals (radical quenchers like SOD)
learning to elaborte low molecular weight or high molecular weight (biofilm) molecules that sop up the highly reactive chemicals, so it takes a much higher conc of plasma
PS: MRSA is actually a :"feeble" bug - we know this because there have been many, very carefull studies that compare patients with MRSA to patients with MSSA (methicillin sensitive S Aureus)
The finding is that petients who get MRSA infections are sicker then patients who get MSSA infections.
To my mind, this means that the genetic changes that make S aureus resistant also make the bug less healthy in general, so it has a difficult time getting established in th blood or in the joints or urinary tract.
And this is consistant with what is known (alot) about the gene mecA and how it acts.
also, there are new antibiotics approved in canada and switzerland that are active against mrsa - ceftobiprole
So was phenol, for that matter. If it kills bacteria in 12 seconds, it's "not nice stuff". Oh yeah maybe the keratin on your skin will prevent it from penetrating. What if it gets in your sweat glands. What if your skin has a lesion, and the keratin is interrupted...
This one gets filed in the "call me when we've been using it safely for 20 years" category. Until then I will stick to soap and water.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Plasma Device Kills ... Skin In Seconds
Sorry, but I always read it as this. And TFS is just a big bunch of white noise after this...
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
As a nurse I would welcome this as I have to wash and disinfect my hands several times a day.
As a nurse, I'd hope you would remember the same lecture on hand-washing I got when I started working for a hospital. Namely, that your nails are equally if not more important. What does this do for dirt under nails? Uh huh.
Please help metamoderate.
Rachael Ray?
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
This eradicates the germs, they aren't being poisoned or having their chemical processes blocked (which is what most antibiotics do), it's ripping the germs apart at the atomic level. You don't develop a resistance to that.
I'm sure similar thoughts were said about radiation, bleach, alcohol, and autoclaves. Turns out there are various critters resistant or immune to each.
However, if this manages to blow away prions (which aren't zapped by a number of things, including normal autoclaves), it'll be great news.
Please help metamoderate.
Or infection control was acknowledged as a more serious problem causing secondary infections due to more thorough analysis in the past century, accompanied by numerous other medical advances.
Or to put it differently;
Fun related fact: infection control became MORE of a problem when cars became common. Something about the emissions and blah blah blah.
The Max Planck Institute has a Web page that tells us who he is. Below is a quote from his resume.
"Born on July 23, 1945 in Oberhausen. Study of physics, doctorate Imperial College of Science and Technology (1971), German Habilitation in physics Heidelberg Univ. (1977), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (since 1984)."
Below is a list of his awards.
Patten Prize of Indiana University
Science Award of the Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanites in Germany
Honorary Professor Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
Honorary Doctor Technical Univ. Berlin
Honorary Professor Univ. of Leeds, England
Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Dr. Morfill must be a brilliant scholar as the Russian Academy of Sciences rarely grants membership to scientists who are not Russian citizens.
Here is an interesting question. Why have Germans (like Dr. Morfill) accomplished so much in science and technology? Does culture, genetics, or a combination (of both) explain their scientific prowess? Note that Albert Einstein is a German (with a Jewish heritage).
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
Don't taz me Bro!!!
SIGLOST && SIGUNUSED && SIGQUIT
I'm sure similar thoughts were said about radiation, bleach, alcohol, and autoclaves. Turns out there are various critters resistant or immune to each.
None of which are harmful to us. They had to become so different in order to survive those things that our bodies no longer make a good habitat for them.
So cars create drug resistant bacteria? Or is it the other way around? Does the autoimmune industry really need more bailing out?
I'll sell my stock in hand-sanitizing gel manufacturers on Monday.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Finally we'll all get to figure out how to use the three seashells!
Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
How about testing it on ppl with Psoriasis? This is suppose to be a genetic disease in the same fashion that all of the duodenal ulcers were called that we suddenly soaring in count. Oddly, all of the drug companies claimed it was genetic and came up with all sorts of drugs to solve the symptoms, but not the problem.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I would not classify prions as non-harmful.
-The world would be a better place if everyone had a hoverboard
Like a poster before me, I'm all about getting one in a toothbrush. I could definitely take 12 seconds to clean off my teeth, rather than the "Five minutes for top teeth, fiver for bottom" that my dentist tells me to do.
Uhuh. And where does non-baryonic matter fit in?
Just saying. Hospitals use it for door handles and other surfaces because it can zap superbugs. But hey, it's way cooler to pass your hands into some sort of holding tank where they can be spritzed with some sort of crazy atmospheric plasma.
Or living, or capable of reproducing independently.
I've worked in surgery as a technologist (ie the one who sets up and gets instruments ready for the doc, as well as the one ultimately responsible for sterility) and I really question your fun related fact. For one thing, it makes no sense.
You are correct, however, about wearing sterile gloves. Most of the time they are wearing two layers in fact. However, they are also playing around with sharp, pointy thingies and they tend to pierce or tear gloves very often. Thats one of the things the technologist watches for and reminds them to change their gloves if needed. Before scrubbing in, it is required to wash your hands. Many places have a 5 minute scrub mandatory for each case, some just mandate that for the first operaiton of the day and then chemical solutions (kind of like germ-x on steroids) for the rest of the day. Either way, this device would be awesome if it could replace those. A normal hand scrub to get off dirt and residue, then this for 12 seconds. It might not be any faster than the solutions, but it is much friendlier. That stuff really gets irritating to the skin after using it 10 times a day for years.
Yes.
Prions did not evolve due to anti-bacterial action. I doubt the term evolve even applies to prions.
Besides that, prions are hardly indestructable, it's just that the consequences of missing even one molecule can be terrible.
When I read articles like this, I can't help but reflect on how radiation was the "in thing", and products featuring it were ubiquitous, and lots of people got sick and died. Centuries before, the same problem existed with mercury.
I'm concerned about the possibility, however remote, that plasma-based technology is not truly harmless and could come back to bite us in the rear in a few years.
to be continued
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.