Friendly yoghurt-based bacteria may help reduce tooth decay and body odour

Tooth decay affects about 5 billion people worldwide. … A chewing gum containing good bacteria that can destroy the bad bacteria that cause tooth decay could be in the shops soon. The gum is one of several products being developed by German chemical company BASF using the bacteria Lactobacillus, which is normally found in live yoghurt.

BASF discovered a new strain of lactobacillus called L anti-caries, which binds to Strepptococcus mutans (S
Mutans), the bacteria responsible for tooth decay.

S Mutans sticks to the surface of teeth, where it produces an aggressive acid that breaks down the enamel. The friendly bugs in the gum will make the S Mutans clump together, preventing them from becoming attached to the tooth surface. Tests reveal that the? gum can reduce bacteria in the mouth fifty times.

The company is also going to release a new line of toothpastes and mouthwashes using L anti-caries.

Other potential uses of Lactobacillus include the prevention of body odour. BASF are looking into producing a deodorant based on L aladoris, which can inhibit odour-producing bacteria in the armpit. Similarly, tests have shown another strain, L ala-odoris can reduce odour formation in feet. – mum

It is neat that Dr. Andreas Reindl (pictured above) discovered this rather than genetically engineering it. Is this natural strain the mysterious reason some people don’t get cavities? What about the repopulation problem with S. mutans? Does this gum work long term? I’ve always thought there is purposeful foot dragginging. Years ago in 1981 one article said they had a vaccine that worked in primates. In 1993, 12 years later, they still hadn’t tested this on humans?!

“Vaccines have been prepared from purified antigens of mutans streptococci. These vaccines confer protection in non-human primates, but have yet to be tested in a human clinical trial.” -Caries Res. 1993;27 Suppl 1:72-6.

When I talked to a Dental School teacher at UCSF about this, he said the problem with humans is that the S. mutans bacteria just comes back from food, kissing, toothbrushes, and so on. So, a daily gum sounds like it might work.

Scientists flock to test ‘free energy’ discovery

A man who claims to have developed a free energy technology which could power everything from mobile phones to cars has received more than 400 applications from scientists to test it.Sean McCarthy says that no one was more sceptical than he when Steorn, his small hi-tech firm in Dublin, hit upon a way of generating clean, free and constant energy from the interaction of magnetic fields. ‘It wasn’t so much a Eureka moment as a get-back-in-there-and-check-your-instruments moment, although in far more colourful language,’ said McCarthy. But when he attempted to share his findings, he says, scientists either put the phone down on him or refused to endorse him publicly in case they damaged their academic reputations. So last week he took out a full-page advert in the Economist magazine, challenging the scientific community to examine his technology.

McCarthy claims it provides five times the amount of energy a mobile phone battery generates for the same size, and does not have to be recharged. Within 36 hours of his advert appearing he had been contacted by 420 scientists in Europe, America and Australia, and a further 4,606 people had registered to receive the results. – observer

“What we have developed is a way to construct magnetic fields so that when you travel round the magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy,” he told Ireland’s RTE radio. “The energy isn’t being converted from any other source such as the energy within the magnet. It’s literally created. Once the technology operates, it provides a constant stream of clean energy.” – playfuls

“When asked if he or his company has been impacted by the threat or fear of possible suppression of the technology, as has allegedly been the case in many other similar revolutionary energy technology situations, McCarthy responded: “Not in the slightest.” “We don’t live in the conspiracy-theory world.” He said his company has worked extensively as a vendor for law enforcement, and has confronted some “pretty scary people,” and has good security in place. “Furthermore, it’s not a person, but a company that has produced this technology.” – pesn

If true, this would change the world. But… Steorn is/was a marketing company. It could be a scam: They spend $100,000 for a slick ad and web site and get millions by soliciting research donations from investors before the hoax is found out. I found a European patent which is interesting to read. We’ll see…