Scientists Trick Bacteria with Small Molecules

A team of Yale University scientists has engineered the cell wall of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, tricking it into incorporating foreign small molecules and embedding them within the cell wall.

The finding, described online in the journal ACS Chemical Biology this week, represents the first time scientists have engineered the cell wall of a pathogenic “Gram-positive” bacteria—organisms responsible not only for Staph infections but also pneumonia, strep throat and many others. The discovery could pave the way for new methods of combating the bacteria responsible for many of the most infectious diseases.

The team engineered one end of their small molecules to contain a peptide sequence that would be recognized by the bacteria. In Staphylococcus aureus, an enzyme called sortase A is responsible for attaching proteins to the cell wall.

“We sort of tricked the bacteria into incorporating something into its cell wall that it didn’t actually make,” said David Spiegel, a Yale chemist who led the study. … By being able to manipulate the cell wall, we can in theory perturb the bacteria’s ability to interact with human tissues and host cells.” …

via Scientists Trick Bacteria with Small Molecules.

MS planning Patch Tuesday whopper: 16 bulletins, 49 vulnerabilities

Ryan Naraine – This month’s batch of security patches from Microsoft will be a record-breaking one: 16 bulletins addressing a whopping 49 security vulnerabilities.

According to the company’s advance notice, four of the 16 bulletins will be rated “critical,” Microsoft’s highest severity rating. Microsoft rates a critical vulnerability as one that could be exploited to propagate an Internet worm without user action.

The 49 vulnerabilities will mark the largest ever batch of patches issued by Microsoft. The previous record was 34 vulnerabilities patched in August this year.

The October patch batch will include fixes for security flaws in the Windows operating system, the Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft Office and the .NET Framework.

It is very likely that Microsoft will include patches for a pair of elevation of privilege vulnerabilities that were exploited during the mysterious Stuxnet worm attack.

via MS planning Patch Tuesday whopper: 16 bulletins, 49 vulnerabilities | ZDNet.

Monkey which killed baby shot dead

A monkey which snatched a four-day old baby girl from a house in Happy Garden Rasah, Seremban on Wednesday and killed the infant by dropping her from the roof, was shot dead by officers of the Wildlife Department (Perhilitan).

The yet unamed baby was bitten on the head, ears, neck and face by the macaque in the incident which happened at about 1.15pm when her mother B. Revathy, 28 was in the bathroom.

Revathy’s father A Valayutham , 75, said he noticed that the baby was missing after leaving the hall of the single-story house to get a drink from the kitchen.

He said he was shocked to see blood stains, adding that his daughter panicked and ran out of the house shouting. The monkey, alarmed by her cries dropped the infant from the room where it was holding her. …

Ishak said he believed that the monkey could have been attracted by a female macaque kept in captivity as a pet by the family. …

via Monkey which killed baby shot dead.

“Capture my woman and keep her in a cage,  I’ll capture your baby and keep it … uh… on the roof. Oh no, here they come! Oops.”

Obviously, the people had to have the monkey shot and then plopped dead next to the live caged monkey. (Perhaps the same one the family kept in the house?)

 

Escape for florists as world’s deadliest frog leaps out of exotic flowers

A Phantasmal poison dart frog: It may be pretty but its poison is lethal

Florist Debbie Wilding jumped out of her skin as she unpacked a box of exotic flowers and came face to face with a colourful frog. What she didn’t know was that it was one of the deadliest creatures on the planet.

A Phantasmal poison dart frog may be pretty but its poison is lethal, and as Debbie and her colleagues tried to recapture it, one of them rang nearby Myerscough College and was warned: ‘Whatever you do, don’t touch it!’

The one-and-a-half-inch long frog is one of the most poisonous creatures on Earth, and any contact with it would have serious consequences.

via Escape for florists as world’s deadliest frog leaps out of exotic flowers | Mail Online.

Cheek Swab May Detect Lung Cancer

Joshua A. Chamot – NSF

Early detection is critical for improving cancer survival rates. Yet, one of the deadliest cancers in the United States, lung cancer, is notoriously difficult to detect in its early stages.

Now, researchers have developed a method to detect lung cancer by merely shining diffuse light on cells swabbed from patients’ cheeks.

In a new clinical study, the analysis technique–called partial wave spectroscopic (PWS) microscopy–was able to differentiate individuals with lung cancer from those without, even if the non-cancerous patients had been lifetime smokers or suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The findings-released by a team of engineers and physicians from NorthShore University Health System, Northwestern University and New York University-appear in print in the Oct. 15, 2010, issue of the journal Cancer Research.

“This study is important because it provides the proof of concept that a minimally intrusive, risk-stratification technique may allow us to tailor screening for lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths in Americans,” said physician and researcher Hemant Roy of NorthShore University HealthSystems and the University of Chicago, the lead author on the paper. “This represents a major step forward in translating biomedical optics breakthroughs for personalized screening for lung cancer.” …

via nsf.gov – National Science Foundation (NSF) News – Cheek Swab May Detect Lung Cancer – US National Science Foundation (NSF).

Water discovered on second asteroid, may be even more common

Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala – University of Central Florida

Water ice on asteroids may be more common than expected, according to a new study that will be presented today at the world’s largest gathering of planetary scientists.

Two teams of researchers who made national headlines in April for showing the first evidence of water ice and organic molecules on an asteroid have now discovered that asteroid 65 Cybele contains the same material.

“This discovery suggests that this region of our solar system contains more water ice than anticipated,” said University of Central Florida Professor Humberto Campins. “And it supports the theory that asteroids may have hit Earth and brought our planet its water and the building blocks for life to form and evolve here.”

Campins will present the teams’ findings during the 42nd-annual Division of Planetary Sciences Conference (http://dps.aas.org/meetings/2010) in Pasadena, Calif., which concludes Oct. 8.

Asteroid 65 Cybele is somewhat larger than asteroid 24 Themis – the subject of the teams’ first paper. Cybele has a diameter of 290 km (180 miles). Themis has a diameter of 200 km (124 miles). Both are in the same region of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The academic article reporting this new finding has been accepted for publication in the European Journal “Astronomy and Astrophysics.”

via Water discovered on second asteroid, may be even more common.

Uncle Sam Wants Your DNA: Privacy a price to pay for travel ticket?

Anger is growing in Europe about new Washington data sharing demands, in what they call a move to stop potential terrorists from entering the U.S. The requirements include fingerprints, DNA samples and cross border payments – data considered by many as private and sensitive. Travellers from countries refusing to share the information will have to apply for a visa to enter the U.S. However some EU states – like Austria and Germany – have already agreed to hand over the personal data of its citizens.

In June the EU and the United States signed the so-called SWIFT deal, giving American government officials access to all bank transactions within Europe.

via YouTube – Uncle Sam Wants Your DNA: Privacy a price to pay for travel ticket?.

08.07.2010 – The European Parliament today approved a EU-US deal on sharing bank data to help track terrorist financing.

MEPs voted by 484 in favour, 109 against and 12 abstentions to back the new accord, clearing the way for it to come into force on 1 August. The deal, known as SWIFT after the private company that handles electronic banking data, sets conditions for access to international banking transfer records from EU countries by the US Treasury‘s Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP).

Alexander Alvaro, a German liberal MEP who drafted the Parliament’s opinion on the accord, said the Parliament had won concessions from US and EU authorities that would better guarantee the rights of Europeans. “It manages to protect the security of our citizens,” said Alvaro.

via europvoice

Outrageous. How do they collect DNA? Possibly a cheek swab and then something like the HDA-GT12?

April 27, 2006–eGene Inc. (OTCBB:EGEI – News), a leading biotechnology company, announced that it is looking for global business partners in the DNA sample collection in airport terminals.
The company’s leading product, the compact and automated digital genetic analyzer, HDA-GT12(TM), is already achieving rapid penetration and acceptance in the current genetic research and testing market. – ftalk

This was from about a year ago: October 7, 2009

A lawsuit filed today by the ACLU of Northern California seeks to stop California’s policy of mandating that DNA is collected from anyone arrested for a felony, whether or not they are ever charged or convicted. The ACLU opposes this law because it violates constitutional guarantees of privacy and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and because of the harmful impact on communities of color.  … “Forcing a person to provide a DNA sample without any judicial oversight violates the Constitution,” said Michael Risher, staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC). ”The result of this new program is that thousands of innocent Californians will be subject to a lifetime of genetic surveillance because a single police officer suspected them of a crime. … California’s huge forensic DNA database–the third largest in the world–already faces tremendous backlogs.” – aclu

Are they actually collecting DNA at airports? Some say yes, on the sly, with a cover story of searching for explosives residue.

Airline passengers are about to get a new set of instructions before boarding a plane: Put your palms forward. More and more passengers will be putting their hands up; to get swabbed for explosive residue. … General Mitchell International Airport is on the list of airports to implement this step up in security and increase the number of random searches. Passengers we spoke to seem to agree; security comes first; “It is safety for everyone, it shouldn’t matter” says one traveller. – cbs58

Perhaps I just thought of this because the second line in my song “I’m Growing Your Clone” is…

“Skin cells from your hand, I’ve captured your DNA and …”

Some say there is a secret diabolical reason DNA is being collected, along with those nude body scans being secretly recorded at airports.   If the human population (and along with it our genetic diversity) were going to diminish drastically, a database would be needed to help enable the survival of the elite.

Those nuclear subterrenes have been digging for many years now. It’s a good bet Iron Mountain is not the only place records (fuel, water, seeds, dna, patents, gadgets, alien bodies(?), etc.) are being stored.

Hungary battles to stem torrent of toxic sludge

The thick, red torrent of sludge, which burst from a reservoir at [an aluminum] plant 100 miles south of Budapest Monday, has left yards covered in toxic waste, piled up in streets and poured into fields.

The government of Hungary has launched a criminal probe into the disaster. It has left four people dead and forced the evacuation of hundreds. – abc

The flood, estimated at 185 million gallons, swept cars off roads, damaged bridges and houses, and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents. People who came in contact with the substance were burned through their clothes. …

Red sludge, also known as red mud, is a byproduct of the refining of bauxite into alumina, the basic material for manufacturing aluminum, according to the Aluminum Association, an industry trade group based in Arlington, Va. The sludge, a waste product in production, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested, scientists say.

The plant’s owner issued a statement yesterday afternoon saying that “the red sludge waste is not considered hazardous waste,’’ according to European Union standards. – boston.com

Emergency services in Hungary are trying to stop a torrent of toxic red sludge flowing into major waterways, including the River Danube.

A state of emergency has been declared in three western counties after the chemical waste burst from a reservoir at an alumina plant.

Four people are known to have died, with 120 injured. Six more are missing. At least seven villages and towns are affected including Devecser, where the torrent was 2m (6.5ft) deep. … While the cause of the deaths has not been established officially, it is believed the victims probably drowned.

Some 600,000-700,000 cubic metres (21m-24m cubic feet) of sludge escaped from the plant, 160km (100 miles) from the capital, Budapest.

With 7,000 people affected directly by the disaster, a state of emergency was declared in the county of Veszprem where the spill occurred, and Gyor-Moson-Sopron and Vas, where the sludge appeared to be heading. …

via BBC News – Hungary battles to stem torrent of toxic sludge.