Wednesday, April 23, 2008

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Saturday, April 5, 2008

Cells have huge electric charges

A new nanoscale tool reveals strong electric fields inside cells.

Using novel voltage-sensitive nanoparticles, researchers have found electric fields inside cells as strong as those produced in lightning bolts. Previously, it has only been possible to measure electric fields across cell membranes, not within the main bulk of cells. It's not clear what causes these strong fields or what they might mean. But now that it's possible to measure them, researchers hope to learn about disease states such as cancer by studying these electric fields.

University of Michigan researchers led by chemistry professor Raoul Kopelman encapsulated voltage-sensitive dyes in polymer spheres just 30 nanometers in diameter. When illuminated with blue light, the voltage-sensitive dyes emit a mixture of red and green light; the exact frequency of light emitted is influenced by the strength of local electric fields, allowing the researchers to measure those fields. Testing these nanoparticles in the internal fluid of brain-cancer cells, Kopelman found electric fields as strong as 15 million volts per meter, perhaps five times stronger than the field found in a lightning bolt.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19841/?a=f


Ear wax

I get slightly irate when I hear about people with ear wax problems. In all cases, it turns out the cause is avoiding warm water, specifically submerging the head in warm water.

Even cool water (pools, oceans, rivers, lakes and such) works, if one immerses the head in water with regularity.

No sources are going to be provided for this one. The removal of built up ear wax is done by using warm water. Or in extreme cases, chemicals and physical means.

But from an evidence based scientific view, nobody who regularly bathes in warm water, which means submerging the head in warm water, suffers from ear wax build up.

(Ear wax dissolves in warm water)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Aloe Vera

PubMed

Evidence for wound healing, treating herpes, psoriasis, acne (postdermabrasion), etc etc