Attention, scientists! For a whopping twenty five bucks, you can be the proud owner of ThinkGeek’s latest toy: The Bacteria Growth Science Kit. It comes with a petri dish, an eye dropper, pipettes, test tubes and packages of Agar. Remember Agar? It’s that stuff that you’d use in science class as a kid to grow bacteria, which is exactly the aim of this kit. That shit loves to grow with Agar.
Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien and Japan’s Osamu Shimomura discovered and successfully developed a fluorescent protein found in jellyfish. Jellyfish will glow under blue and ultraviolet light because of this protein which the three scientists have become known for.
It might not sound like much, but this jellyfish protein has been widely used to study the spread of cancer, how brain cells develop and bacterial growth. Still don’t think it’s a big deal?
The academy compared the impact of the protein on science to the invention of the microscope, saying that for the past decade the protein has been ‘a guiding star for biochemists, biologists, medical scientists and other researchers’.
Yes, this is a big deal.
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Everyday scientists are creating new ways to develop the things we take for granted. Eliminating the problematic ways of creating plastic with oil or gas, scientists of Genomatica Inc. have formed strains of bacteria which produce plastic.
This is great news as this bacteria requires little more than sugar and water to produce butanediol, the compound used to manufacture many things such as plastic, fibers or pharmaceuticals. Genomatica predicts that within the year, this energy-efficient process will cost less than the current processes used to create plastic.
So what do you think of when someone mentions metal in your mouth? Headgear? Braces? Or a toothbrush? This is about the latter.
The TiFinity toothbrush uses titanium bristles to clean your teeth and last for an extremely long time. This toothbrush has a lifespan of 2 years! So what do you pay for a toothbrush that lasts for 2 years? $50. Sounds expensive, and it might be depending on how much you spend on nylon toothbrushes every year. One really cool feature (which is partially why it lasts for 2 years) is that it is impermeable by water, so there isn’t that immense ammount of bacteria that you are/aren’t used to. –Nik Gomez
TiFinity Toothbrush [via UberGizmo]
Sanyo Japan announced today that they have started to commercialize their proprietorial virus-removal technology onto their line of air purifiers as well as air-conditioners. A regular air purifier removes dusts, if the pores on the sieve gets smaller, it can pick up flower pollens or even some bacteria. If you want to move up one level, we have sieves with electrical properties that can attract and hold these particles and hence attaining an even higher level of air “purification”. However, virus is something that is difficult to tackle, mainly because of their small sizes, even the air treatment systems in most of the Operation Theaters in hospitals cannot remove virus. Sanyo Japan has figured out a way to do that cheap and small enough to fit in your house. The simple story is that they’re using electrolyzed water to attack the virus structure so that they cannot attack your body cells and make you sick. Their lab claimed that the Virus Washer technology is able to remove 99% of norovirus (recent diarrhea outbreak) in air, which cannot be removed by alcohol alone. The whole line of products was demoed this morning, so expect them to be out at the market real soon, no word on price yet. — Sam Chan
Virus Washer technology lab results [Sanyo Japan]
Virus Washer series [Sanyo Japan]
