UK thalidomide survivors get new grant

The government announced today that a new pot of money has been put aside to help Thalidomide survivors in the UK. It is though that this will be used towards meeting their health needs into their old age, after previous grants have been used to adapt homes and fund the primary care of Thalidomide victims.

New £80 million grant for thalidomide survivors

As you may know already, the drug was dispensed as a morning sickness suppressant in the late 1950's and early 1960's before concerns were raised about an unusual spate of birth defects. Thalidomide has strong sedative properties and many women in the early weeks of pregnancy had taken it to ease their morning sickness, utterly unaware that its effect on the unborn child could be teratogenic (it interfered with embryonic development). The drug was withdrawn in 1961, but not before almost 10,000 babies were affected, often born with shortened, missing or mutated limbs, many of whom were too badly damaged to survive for long. Despite this, it took the makers of the drug over 50 years to make a formal apology.

Thalidomide maker issues apology

Research into Thalidomide and its uses continues today, and it has been proven to be effective in the treatment of certain cancers and leprosy, but the fact that it causes birth defects means that for women its use remains risky and controversial.

What happened to the Thalidomide babies?

Thalidomide has just one chiral atom and so exists as two enantiomers (see diagram above). Notice that two of the groups attached to the chiral centre are part of the same ring structure. They are classified as two different groups, since moving around from the chiral centre the order of atoms is different each way. Laboratory tests after the Thalidomide disaster showed that in some animals the 'S' enantiomer was teratogenic but the 'R' isomer was an effective sedative. It is now known that even when a stereo selective sample of Thalidomide (only one of the optical isomers) is created, enzymes in the body will convert it into a racemic mixture. The means that both enantiomers are formed in a roughly equal mix in the blood. At the time Thalidomide was dispensed as a racemic medication, but even if a drug of only the 'R' isomer had been created, the disaster would not have been averted. 

scottish firework accident

A display in Scotland went wrong on Bonfire Night after a stray rocket set off over £1000 pounds worth of remaining unused fireworks. Check out the video on the link below.

freak firework accident

Luckily no-one was seriously hurt in the ensuing mayhem, although there was a report of minor damage to a local haggis. Mel Gibson was unavailable for comment.

liquid nitrogen cocktails

 

Looks exciting, but one young girl nearly paid with her life at the weekend after drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen whilst out celebrating her 18th birthday. The phenomenon is becoming increasingly popular in trendy bars but the incident that led to her stomach being removed in an emergency procedure has raised issues over the wisdom of such behaviour.

The girl was with friends at Oscar's wine bar in Lancaster city centre when she began to feel ill, becoming breathless and developing severe stomach pain. She was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with a perforated stomach and surgeons operated immediately to save her life. Lancashire police said: "Medical opinion is that this would have proved fatal had the operation not been carried out urgently." Doctors stated that they had no option but to remove her entire stomach.

An investigation is taking place into the circumstances of how she was given the drink. Once added to alcohol, liquid nitrogen makes the drink appear surrounded by a cloud of white or grey vapour as the liquid boils. In a statement, Oscar's wine bar said it was "tremendously concerned" about the girl and sent its best wishes to her family. Last month, the bar posted a photograph on its Facebook page of a cocktail which contained liquid nitrogen and champagne, and was being sold for £8.95.

Police said the bar had ceased selling all liquid nitrogen cocktails following the incident and had co-operated with all the agencies. The investigation is in its early stages and officers are still interviewing witnesses to establish the facts. Liquid nitrogen, which boils at −196 °C, has become common as a method for flash freezing food or drinks and creating a dramatic vapour cloud. It is stored and transported in vacuum flasks, but can cause severe internal damage if it is ingested.

bbc news report

the dark side of liquid nitrogen cocktails

toxic spill in hungary

Last week saw one of the worst environmental disasters in Europe of the last few decades when a toxic slurry was released into the river Danube in Hungary after the collapse of a dam wall at an alumina plant. The red sludge contained a highly toxic mix of poisonous heavy metals and corrosive alkali.


Alumina is pure aluminium oxide, a compound which can then be electrolysed to produce aluminium, the most abundant metal in the earth crust and therefore one of the most widely used worldwide. However, the production of this pure white compound from aluminium ore or bauxite requires the removal of the impurities from the ore using strong alkali. As the dam wall broke, the impurities and the alkali were both released in a toxic red torrent, distinctively coloured by iron oxide removed from the ore, that resulted in the death of 5 people with many more suffering chemical burns, and the relocation of hundreds who lost their homes. The eventual clean up operation could take 18 months.

Hungarian alumina plant disaster

the disaster in 50 pictures

molecule's stunning microscope image

A bit of news that you may have missed over the summer, researchers from IBM in Zurich claim to have imaged the detailed chemical structure of a single molecule for the first time, using a pretty advanced microscope.

The molecule they have been studying is called pentacene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of five linearly-fused benzene rings.


If you compare the previously known structure of the molecule (above) to the image seen under the microscope, the results are fairly spectacular. The new image clearly shows the bonds between the carbon atoms in the five linked rings, and even hints at the bonds to the hydrogen atoms around the edges of the carbon rings (these are usually omitted from the skeletal image above for simplicity).


The whole apparatus has to be extremely cold, at temperatures approaching absolute zero so as to avoid unwanted atom vibration, and the set up must be kept in a vacuum to eliminate stray molecules. You can read more about this by following the link below.

bbc news

large hadron collider

The biggest, most expensive experiment in history begins this week and is attracting both scientific hyperbole and hysteria. Some say it will reveal the universe's secrets and lead to the elusive Theory of Everything. A few fear that unleashing unimaginable power beneath the Swiss countryside will result in the end of the world. On Wednesday scientists will find out whether the LHC’s £3 billion cost has paid off.

The first beams of particles have already been successfully fired around nearly half of the 17-mile tunnel in Switzerland, where Cern (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) is based, as part of preliminary testing. If Wednesday’s start-up goes smoothly a second beam will be fired into the machine travelling in the opposite direction, with the two forced to collide. The products of those collisions could give physicists their best insight yet into the structure and origins of the universe.

The Big Bang is what they are trying to recreate. Or rather what happened a trillionth of a second after the universe was created by an explosion, 13.7 billion years ago. For that tiny moment, it is believed everything was molten plasma. This cooled to create everything we see around us. The hope is that by recreating that moment, in miniature, the scientists will be able to see things that are invisible now. Why though?

Well, the problem is that we don't have any real evidence for our theory of why things have mass. In 1964 Professor Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University predicted an unseen particle that provided mass, the Higgs boson. The hope is it will be detected for the first time and its detection may give us a Theory of Everything, the Holy Grail of science. This is a unifying theory providing one explanation for the forces at work in the natural world, from the nucleus of an atom to the movements of the planets. Sounds like alchemy to non-scientists, but some very respectable minds believe it is possible, and that the collider may show the way.

Some scientists, on the other hand, went to the European Court for Human Rights to try to stop the collider being turned on. They fear it may create a black hole, which would certainly violate our rights by sucking the planet into... well we don't really know, but it's probably not good news. Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith of Cern says: "The chance we produce a black hole is minuscule." Which is not all that reassuring. Or as Professor Brian Cox puts it, "anyone who thinks that the LHC is dangerous is a t--- ".

However, is it not entirely possible that a few seconds before the original big bang there may have been a group of eminent scientists stood around in an alternate universe waiting patiently for someone flick a switch and turn a very large particle collider on? In any case, they will only send the protons in one direction this week. The collisions start in October. Until then, at least, we're safe.

large hadron collider guide

official LHC website

scientifically correct LHC rap
I know physicists are excited about it, but a rap?

albert hofmann

Last Wednesday, 30th April, Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, died of a heart attack at his home in Basel at the age of 102.

Mr Hofmann first produced LSD in 1938 while researching the medicinal uses of plants, in particular a type of crop fungus. While working with the drug in the Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratory a few years after first producing it, Mr Hofmann accidentally ingested some of the drug through his fingertips.He went home and experienced what he described as visions of "fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colours".

Hofmann argued for decades that LSD could help treat mental illness and over 2000 research papers were published on the drug, offering hope for sufferers of a range of conditions from drug and alcohol addiction to psychiatric illnesses of various kinds. However, in the 1960s it became a popular street drug and was soon made illegal, much to Hofmann's regret, and he was forced to concede that LSD could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.

Albert Hofmann obituary

oil strike

Just last month (January 2008) the Anglo-Dutch oil firm Shell reported annual profits of $27.56 bn (£13.9 bn), a record for a UK-listed company. Much of the rise in profits was attributed to rising oil prices, which have nearly doubled since last year. However, the level of profit announced has been described as "quite frankly obscene" and clearly doesn't sit well with many drivers who are paying a premium to fill their cars at petrol pumps around the country.

The oil company itself went to great lengths to stress that little of their profit came from petrol forecourts, with the majority of the price paid at the pump already going straight to the government. Very reassuring.

So, if you think you can make more money than Shell, have a go at the game below where you have been drafted in as the managing director of your own oil exploration company. You will have to answer questions on oil and fractional distillation to ensure the smooth running of the company.

play oil strike

an inconvenient truth

Some of you may have seen 'An Inconvenient Truth' and be aware of Al Gore's involvement as an alarmist in the global warming argument. However, as good scientists we should always try to have a balanced view based on the provable facts available, and whenever possible arrive at this view independently of politics.

To see how much you really know about global warming take this quick test.

global warming test

If this has opened your eyes a bit and you want to find out more, have a look at this site.

icecap

dioxin poisoning

The two photos here were taken only a couple of months apart in 2004.

The man is Victor Yushchenko, a candidate in the Ukranian general election of 2004. The campaign was very bitter and often violent, and Yushchenko became seriously ill in early September 2004. He was flown to a specialist clinic in Vienna and treated for a series of acute internal medical problems, claiming to have been poisoned by government agents.

The real cause of his problem was only discovered after a Dutch toxicologist recognized the symptoms of chloracne (characterised by the pockmarked and bloated nature of his face) while viewing television news coverage of his condition. On December 11, Austrian doctors confirmed that Yushchenko had been poisoned with TCDD dioxin, and had the second highest dioxin level ever recorded in a human.

Dioxins are produced in small concentrations when organic material is burned in the presence of chlorine, whether the chlorine is present as chloride ions or as organochlorine compounds, so they are widely produced in many industrial contexts, but the main problem with them is bioaccumulation in the food chain. The sort of doses found in Yushchenko would have been highly toxic and most likely carcinogenic. Dioxin is widely regarded as the world's most deadly man made chemical (just ahead of sarin) based on LD₅₀ figures(lethal dose 50% - the amount of the chemical needed to account for the death of 50% of a tested population).

Despite this major setback to his health, his popularity did not wane, and on January 23, 2005 Yushchenko was inaugurated as the President of Ukraine.

However his bad luck didn't end there. He was struck by a lightening bolt later that year whilst climbing the Ukraine's highest mountain, but again he survived.

ban DHMO

The following extract is from "Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide" by the Coalition to Ban DHMO © 1988. Nothing has yet been done solve this worldwide problem. Ask your Chemistry teacher to let you sign the petition if you are still worried after reading this, or visit DHMO.org to find out the truth about Dihydrogen Monoxide. Please take the time to visit the site now, or in the near future. You'll be glad you did.

BAN DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE - THE INVISIBLE KILLER

Dihydrogen monoxide is colourless, odourless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year.

What are the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide?

Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Facts

Dihydrogen monoxide:
-is also known as hydric acid, and is the major component of acid rain.
-contributes to the Greenhouse Effect.
-may cause severe burns.
-contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
-accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
-may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
-has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

Contamination is reaching epidemic proportions

Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in almost every stream, lake, and reservoir in America today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in Antarctic ice. In the midwest alone DHMO has caused millions of dollars of property damage.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Uses

Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
-as an industrial solvent and coolant.
-in nuclear power plants.
-in the production of styrofoam.
-as a fire retardant.
-in many forms of cruel animal research.
-in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
-as an additive in certain junk-foods and other food products.

Stop the horror - Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide

Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal. The impact on wildlife is extreme, and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer!

The American government has refused to ban the production, distribution, or use of this damaging chemical due to its importance to the economic health of this nation. In fact, the navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing multi-billion dollar devices to control and utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly sophisticated underground distribution network. Many store large quantities for later use.

It's not too late

Act NOW to prevent further contamination. Find out more about this dangerous chemical. What you don't know CAN hurt you and others throughout the world.