The end of tooth decay and cavities?

Imagine a world where tooth decay was a thing of the past, without having to resort to extreme levels of brushing and flossing.  We’re close to that point.  A new molecule has been discovered that kills the bacteria responsible for causing tooth decay.  This could potentially be added to chewing gum, candy, anything really.  Human trials are starting soon, and under a best-case scenario, this could be on the market in a little more than a year.

Read more over at smartplanet.com.

Sequence a human genome in 24 hours!

The first human genome to be sequenced took about thirteen years, and cost a few billion dollars.  A new product from Life Technologies has dramatically improved upon that, offering sequencing of an entire human genome sequence in under a day and at a cost under $1000!  The machine itself costs around $150k, so would pay for itself pretty quickly (current costs for sequencing a genome are around $10k+).  We’re entering a new era of medical care enabled by information like this, and it’ll be exciting to watch how these technologies are used (such as in preventative care, also with targeting medications).

(via Core77)

FDA decides to not prohibit the use of BPA

Despite numerous scientific studies involving health concerns with the chemical BPA, the FDA announced that they’ll basically be doing nothing about it – business as usual for now, though they’ll keep monitoring it.  So, we continue to lag behind the rest of the civilized world when it comes to food safety, but that’s really no surprise.  It’s also worth noting that this announcement from the FDA was in response to a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council forty one months ago!  Not only is the FDA ignoring this health concern, but they’re dragging their heals and stalling as long as possible (the FDA’s announcement was in response to a lawsuit forcing a response).

TSA body scanners

If you’ve flown anywhere in the past several years, you probably saw, or had to go through, a full-body scanner at the security checkpoint.  There are two technologies in use there.  One is a circular chamber that low powered millimeter waves, to see if you’re hiding anything under your clothes (this is referred to as a millimeter wave scanner).  There’s really little risk associated with this type of scanner, it’s not a big deal at all.  The other technology has you walk between two large blue or gray boxes, and uses low levels of ionizing radiation to perform the same function (this is referred to as a backscatter scanner).  A more detailed comparison of the two technologies can be viewed here.

So what’s the big deal?  Well, the problem is that the backscatter scanners have never been independently tested and shown to be safe.  The government says they’re safe (with little evidence to support that), while the scientific and medical community has serious concerns about their safety.  Apart from the lack of testing, there’s the basic principle in radiation safety that people should never be x-rayed unless there’s a medical benefit.  The risk is real enough that it’s believe that some number of people will get cancer every year from this (the exact number is unknown, but probably less than 100).

So, given that there is a safer alternative, why use backscatter technology at all?  Good question.  Europe has banned them altogether.   Thankfully, there’s now a bill in Congress that would require an independent study on the health and safety of these body scanning technologies.  In a perfect world they’d do the study BEFORE spending money buying and deploying so many of these, but hey, better late than money.  The reality is that lobbyists and corporate interests seem to be heavily influencing the use of these technologies in our country.

In the meantime, what can you do?  If you’re lucky, you can choose to fly to and from airports that are using the millimeter wave technology instead; there’s a very detailed list of what technologies are used at various airports over at flyertalk.com.  You may also find that airports that have the backscatter scanners installed only rarely use them, instead funneling people through traditional metal detectors.

Antibacterial steel

Yesterday I wrote about the dangerous of evolving antibiotic resistant bacteria.  I’m convinced that globally, we won’t be able to decrease the usage of antibiotics enough to prevent the evolution of those bacteria, so instead we need to focus on technologies to fight them.  One cool one is a new metal alloy, that adds silver, nitrogen, and carbon to the surface of a stainless steel alloy.  The result is metal that helps prevent the spread of any bacteria (well, until they become resistant to that…!).  Read more here.

A similar approach uses a special coating (paint-like), applied to any surface, that kills MRSA bacteria.  It uses a special enzyme to directly target MRSA.  The applications are probably pretty limited for now, but it illustrates one way that technology will likely be used in the future to combat this problem.

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