Although supertasters have a higher risk of cancer, they appear to have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, according to work by Dr Bartoshuk's colleague, Valerie Duffy.
This is probably because they do not tend to like sweet and fatty foods, as their sensitive mouths respond badly to the texture of fat.
Cardiovascular disease. Sounds close enough to
heart attack to me.
And he didn't dub them supertasters. That
term was used by the first people to study the
differences in taste bud density years ago.
I think we need a few more breakthroughs before
we get to Marty McFly on a hoverboard.
The breakthrough here is engineered bacteria that
break down glucose to produce hydrogen. That
hydrogen is then sent to a normal fuel cell.
So, to run a stove or a home furnace and clothes
drier, all we need is the bioreactor with the
bacteria in it, and some pure glucose.
Let's go one step further, and add the ability to
break down cellulose, like the bacteria in cows
and termites have. Now you can throw in paper,
cardboard, lawn clippings, sawdust, onion skins,
etc.
To run a car, we would probably want to make
borohydride
as a hydrogen storage mechanism with decent
energy per unit volume. That seems easier and
safer than the very high pressure hydrogen tanks
GM is proposing.
The reason I say this is because I think the size
of the bioreactor needed to convert glucose into
hydrogen at the rate a car would burn it would
not fit into the back of my pickup truck.
You would need a place to store all that glucose,
plus the bioreactor, which would have to be big
enough to have lots of bugs to do the conversion
without heating up enough to cook them.
Not to mention the stench you would get in an
accident...
As I recall, the active ingredient in broccoli is
glucoraphanin, a precursor to sulphoraphane. The
mechanism of sulphorophane is to induce the body
to produce enzymes that attack free radicals.
Other anti-oxidants in fruit and vegetables may
also scavenge free radicals, reducing their harm
to DNA. But perhaps the sheer bulk of those foods
also speeds the passage of the free radicals out
of the system, so they have less time to do
damage.
Now we have an article about an experiment using
E. Coli toxins to slow down the rapid division of
cancer cells in a petri dish. As others have
pointed out, many toxic substances should also
have this effect. But how did they decide that
this effect was what was helping, and not the
speedy elimination of free redicals?
Perhaps when you are looking for a lucrative
anti-cancer drug, wishful thinking takes over.
So, you're going to make it against the law for
me to publish my family tree?
Knowing my father died of some genetic disorder
does not tell you anything about my brother, or
even if I have a brother.
Geneologies have never been considered private
until now. Should we try to put all of the
published ones in a locked box somewhere?
One answer to insurance companies dropping
coverage is to get rid of insurance companies.
Let there be one pool of health risk that we all
pay into, and that has universal coverage.
Besides, in protecting the privacy of one person,
you may be dooming others to die of some genetic
disorder they could have guarded against if they
had only known. If my doctor knows I have an
increased risk for heart disease, he will advise
me differently than if he were ignorant of that
information.
The problem is not that my genes might become
public. The problem is that someone might do
something I don't like because of what they saw
in my genome. Let's fix that problem, and then
there won't be a need for secrecy.
As for lobbyists, people who let insurance money
dictate who they vote for deserve the government
they get.
They want to crash it so that it won't contaminate
one of the moons by accidentally crashing there,
possibly releasing earthly microbes.
That possibility seems like a long shot to me.
It also makes me a little sad to see a spacecraft
crash, even intentionally, but that's just a
sentimental spot I have.
On the other hand, maybe the Jovian atmosphere
will finally open the high gain antenna, if only
for a moment.;-)
History buffs probably don't need to know your
mother's maiden name. So making public the part
of the tree that only includes dead people would
help the historians, while keeping people safe
from identity theft.
How about setting up another, public, database
that people can contribute to. Someone could
then get his family tree from the private database,
and contribute it to the public one.
Because of the nature of trees, it would not be
long before the history buffs had all the
information they would need.
My point was that we do have experience
with interspecies cloning. If the original post
had replaced "any" with "much", as you suggest,
I would not have been moved to comment.
Lovley's group also has found that some Geobacters can convert toxic organic compounds, such as toluene, to electricity. Lovley says this suggests that some Geobacters can be used to harvest energy from waste matter, or can be included in technology used to clean up subsurface environments contaminated by organic matter, especially petroleum. Earlier studies had shown bacteria could produce electricity under artificial conditions in which special chemicals were added, but the UMass study was the first to prove that the nearly ubiquitous microbes living in a typical marine environment could produce electricity under the conditions naturally found in that environment.
"Once we know more about the genome of Geobacters, we will be able to manipulate these organisms to make them receptive to a variety of organic or inorganic contaminants. Theoretically, when they begin to degrade the contaminant, they will throw electrons on an electrode, and that could set off a light, a sound or some other form of signal," Lovely said. "An understanding of how this phenomenon operates has a number of extremely timely applications, especially in developing technologies to recognize toxins and organic contaminants." Lovley cites, for example, the potential for using such technology to develop military equipment that could alert soldiers to the presence of toxins or biological warfare agents in the immediate environment.
The Office of Naval Research funded this study.
Just because you can only think of one use for a technology, don't be quick to label it useless.
Other uses might be to power seafloor monitoring instruments, or just to indicate that some interesting reaction is taking place.
Seriously, though, how do you shield your X-ray
detector so you can prove to yourself that what
you are seeing is not just the effect of power
spikes and RF interference in your instruments?
I'm sure they did a good job of it -- but as a
geek thing, I'd like to see how it was done.
Does it bother anyone else that the wavelength
quoted in the National Geographic article is a
few orders of magnitude too large?
You'd think a science writer would puzzle over a
photon with a wavelength of 0.05 inches being
able to travel in a glass fiber instead of a
microwave waveguide.
Probably some editor confused microns with millimeters
and then converted to inches, because we all know
that inches are a more familiar unit to use when
talking about light wavelengths.
Re:my question to anyone who can answer it...
on
Examining Influenza
·
· Score: 1
This is one of the arguments for vaccinating
children early.
If we have good vaccines for the people who can
afford them, the free enterprise system detects
success, and stops looking further. To actually
eliminate a disease, such as smallpox or polio,
governments (or other non-profits) must come in
and make sure that those who can't afford it are
also immunized.
Would cold-remedy manufacturers lobby against eradicating the common cold?
Re:One thing that always worries me
on
Examining Influenza
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Of course, antibiotics aren't useful against
viruses, but presumably any antiviral agent that
does not kill the virus effectively will give the
virus a better chance at developing resistance.
I am somewhat skeptical (ok, paranoid) about the
motives of drug companies. It looks to me like
it is in their best interest to develop drugs that
turn a fatal disease into a chronic one that needs
expensive drugs for life. If they develop drugs
that actually cure the disease, they make less
money. Where is the most money being spent and
made -- on anti-virals, or on vaccines?
How many companies that sell cold remedies are
working on vaccines for the common cold?
The article says "What's unique about this virus is that its genome is fragmented into eight RNA segments".
I assume that if this makes it unique, then ebola
probably doesn't share the trait.
Immunizing wild waterfowl in southeast asia would
probably require something like a genetically
modified bacteria that expressed the same antigens
as the virus, triggering immunity. Such a bacterium
could be introduced into their habitat.
However, since pigs are the intermediary link, it
would probably be much easier to innoculate pigs
at the same time you innoculate humans. Then you
could use a normal vaccine. But first you have to
make a vaccine that targets some highly preserved
section of the viral DNA, since the protein coat
mutates quickly.
Slashdot Mirror
If you're going to put bacteria into your system on purpose, perhaps the lower intestine is best suited, as it already has a complement of commensals.
Then you could do your thinking closer to where the rest of us do ;-)
Maybe the same glucose these guys eat.
Fuel cells on the brain?
How about here.
Google is your friend.
Cardiovascular disease. Sounds close enough to heart attack to me.
And he didn't dub them supertasters. That term was used by the first people to study the differences in taste bud density years ago.
Read the article again.
I think we need a few more breakthroughs before we get to Marty McFly on a hoverboard.
The breakthrough here is engineered bacteria that break down glucose to produce hydrogen. That hydrogen is then sent to a normal fuel cell.
So, to run a stove or a home furnace and clothes drier, all we need is the bioreactor with the bacteria in it, and some pure glucose.
Let's go one step further, and add the ability to break down cellulose, like the bacteria in cows and termites have. Now you can throw in paper, cardboard, lawn clippings, sawdust, onion skins, etc.
To run a car, we would probably want to make borohydride as a hydrogen storage mechanism with decent energy per unit volume. That seems easier and safer than the very high pressure hydrogen tanks GM is proposing.
The reason I say this is because I think the size of the bioreactor needed to convert glucose into hydrogen at the rate a car would burn it would not fit into the back of my pickup truck.
You would need a place to store all that glucose, plus the bioreactor, which would have to be big enough to have lots of bugs to do the conversion without heating up enough to cook them.
Not to mention the stench you would get in an accident...
As I recall, the active ingredient in broccoli is glucoraphanin, a precursor to sulphoraphane. The mechanism of sulphorophane is to induce the body to produce enzymes that attack free radicals.
Other anti-oxidants in fruit and vegetables may also scavenge free radicals, reducing their harm to DNA. But perhaps the sheer bulk of those foods also speeds the passage of the free radicals out of the system, so they have less time to do damage.
Now we have an article about an experiment using E. Coli toxins to slow down the rapid division of cancer cells in a petri dish. As others have pointed out, many toxic substances should also have this effect. But how did they decide that this effect was what was helping, and not the speedy elimination of free redicals?
Perhaps when you are looking for a lucrative anti-cancer drug, wishful thinking takes over.
So, you're going to make it against the law for me to publish my family tree?
Knowing my father died of some genetic disorder does not tell you anything about my brother, or even if I have a brother.
Geneologies have never been considered private until now. Should we try to put all of the published ones in a locked box somewhere?
One answer to insurance companies dropping coverage is to get rid of insurance companies. Let there be one pool of health risk that we all pay into, and that has universal coverage.
Besides, in protecting the privacy of one person, you may be dooming others to die of some genetic disorder they could have guarded against if they had only known. If my doctor knows I have an increased risk for heart disease, he will advise me differently than if he were ignorant of that information.
The problem is not that my genes might become public. The problem is that someone might do something I don't like because of what they saw in my genome. Let's fix that problem, and then there won't be a need for secrecy.
As for lobbyists, people who let insurance money dictate who they vote for deserve the government they get.
Perhaps there are reputable theories that have "killing all life" in the not-so-distant future?
;-)
It would seem to me that there are lower orbits the craft could be put into, where there would be no chance of a crash with the larger moons.
On the other hand, such an orbit would probably soon decay anyway.
Any speculation on whether the crash will yield any data that we didn't get from the probe sent into the atmosphere earlier?
It would also be interesting to know if the gene that allows the infection is somehow useful for something beneficial, causing it to be conserved.
Or is leprosy a young disease, and there hasn't been time for the gene to be selected against?
I doubt it has the fuel to escape Jupiter.
They want to crash it so that it won't contaminate one of the moons by accidentally crashing there, possibly releasing earthly microbes.
That possibility seems like a long shot to me. It also makes me a little sad to see a spacecraft crash, even intentionally, but that's just a sentimental spot I have.
On the other hand, maybe the Jovian atmosphere will finally open the high gain antenna, if only for a moment. ;-)
History buffs probably don't need to know your mother's maiden name. So making public the part of the tree that only includes dead people would help the historians, while keeping people safe from identity theft.
How about setting up another, public, database that people can contribute to. Someone could then get his family tree from the private database, and contribute it to the public one.
Because of the nature of trees, it would not be long before the history buffs had all the information they would need.
Oh, it's certainly fascinating!
My point was that we do have experience with interspecies cloning. If the original post had replaced "any" with "much", as you suggest, I would not have been moved to comment.
I don't think that's what he didn't understand.
I think he hadn't seen Scientific American, or any of the other coverage.
Where have you been?
It has been widely publicized.
The beer tastes like old socks...
A slightly more informative article is here.
They give the recipe.
Just because you can only think of one use for a technology, don't be quick to label it useless.A quote from this article:
Other uses might be to power seafloor monitoring instruments, or just to indicate that some interesting reaction is taking place.
The creek near your house might be better put to use as a hydroelectric generator.
Biological fuel cells have been around for a long time. The ones we built in high school used yeast.
Here is more information on Desulfuromonas acetoxidans. You can buy pure cultures here.
An article with more information (didn't Hemos ask?) is here.
Now if we could just get him to wear pants...
Seriously, though, how do you shield your X-ray detector so you can prove to yourself that what you are seeing is not just the effect of power spikes and RF interference in your instruments?
I'm sure they did a good job of it -- but as a geek thing, I'd like to see how it was done.
Does it bother anyone else that the wavelength quoted in the National Geographic article is a few orders of magnitude too large?
You'd think a science writer would puzzle over a photon with a wavelength of 0.05 inches being able to travel in a glass fiber instead of a microwave waveguide.
Probably some editor confused microns with millimeters and then converted to inches, because we all know that inches are a more familiar unit to use when talking about light wavelengths.
This is one of the arguments for vaccinating children early.
If we have good vaccines for the people who can afford them, the free enterprise system detects success, and stops looking further. To actually eliminate a disease, such as smallpox or polio, governments (or other non-profits) must come in and make sure that those who can't afford it are also immunized.
Would cold-remedy manufacturers lobby against eradicating the common cold?
Of course, antibiotics aren't useful against viruses, but presumably any antiviral agent that does not kill the virus effectively will give the virus a better chance at developing resistance.
I am somewhat skeptical (ok, paranoid) about the motives of drug companies. It looks to me like it is in their best interest to develop drugs that turn a fatal disease into a chronic one that needs expensive drugs for life. If they develop drugs that actually cure the disease, they make less money. Where is the most money being spent and made -- on anti-virals, or on vaccines?
How many companies that sell cold remedies are working on vaccines for the common cold?
The article says "What's unique about this virus is that its genome is fragmented into eight RNA segments".
I assume that if this makes it unique, then ebola probably doesn't share the trait.
Immunizing wild waterfowl in southeast asia would probably require something like a genetically modified bacteria that expressed the same antigens as the virus, triggering immunity. Such a bacterium could be introduced into their habitat.
However, since pigs are the intermediary link, it would probably be much easier to innoculate pigs at the same time you innoculate humans. Then you could use a normal vaccine. But first you have to make a vaccine that targets some highly preserved section of the viral DNA, since the protein coat mutates quickly.