medicines – Australian Science

Weekly Science Picks

Markus — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 00:12:55 +0000

It is with a heavy heart that I must say, this is my final set of Weekly Science Picks here on Australian Science. In fact, it’s to be the final set of Weekly Science Picks. Unfortunately, running a site like this one is a costly affair, and it’s been an honour to be a writer here over the past year and a half. Scientific progress will, of course, always carry on and I hope there will always be places to discuss new findings, implications, and effects of it on human culture and society.

So, proudly then, here are the final set of news stories which caught my eye this week. Make no mistake – there’s been some pretty cool news recently!

Firstly, and in my opinion most excitingly, is a medical breakthrough which could actually revolutionise surgery in the future. And anyone who knows me will know that I don’t use words like “revolutionise” lightly. Quite simply, the device is a small pen, developed by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), which will be able to deposit stem cells and growth factors directly into injuries. This means that this pen could help injured tissue – bones, muscle, and even nerves – to regrow. Oh, and did I mention it works using 3D printing technology?

BioPen to rewrite orthopaedic implants surgery

The BioPen prototype was designed and built using the 3D printing equipment in the labs at the University of Wollongong and was this week handed over to clinical partners at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, led by Professor Peter Choong, who will work on optimising the cell material for use in clinical trials.

For a long time humans were considered unique in that we use tools where other animal species don’t. But since that old idea, more and more animals – from birds to octopodes – have been shown to use tools in their daily lives. The most recent addition to this collection of smart creatures is the crocodile which has been found to use lures while hunting. Perhaps this might help show that reptiles are smarter than we give them credit for!

Alligators and Crocodiles Use Tools to Hunt, in a First

Relatively less is known about crocodiles and alligators than many animals, because, as large predators, they are difficult to raise in the lab and study up close in the wild. Their cold-bloodedness also makes them slow. “They operate on a different time scale; they do things more slowly,” Burghardt said. “Sometimes we don’t have the patience to let them strut their stuff, as it were … so this kind of study is important.”

A huge plume of water has been spotted, gushing from the surface of Enceladus, Saturn’s tiny snowball moon. While the exact source of Enceladus’ warmth is still something of a mystery, this sighting means that its activity is quite clear – this water plume is reaching an altitude of around 201 km above the surface of the tiny world. That’s nearly ten times as high as Olympus Mons, the solar system’s largest mountain (which itself dwarfs Everest, the heighest mountain on Earth).

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Evidence of Water Vapor Venting off Jupiter Moon

“By far the simplest explanation for this water vapor is that it erupted from plumes on the surface of Europa,

Cite this article:
Hammonds M (2013-12-15 00:12:55). Weekly Science Picks. Australian Science. Retrieved: Aug 25, 2026, from https://australianscience.com.au/news/weekly-science-picks-58/
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Pacific plant could be good news for anxiety sufferers

Markus — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 06:53:09 +0000

A clinical study on kava, a Pacific plant, has found that it has properties which could be extremely useful in treating the symptoms of anxiety. The plant has been used recreationally in Pacific societies, in places like Polynesia and Hawaii, for a long time but this is apparently the first proper clinical study of the plant.

Now, I must admit, I’m writing this story because I have some anecdotal experience with kava (piper methysticum) myself. Simply, I’ve been an insomniac on and off for most of my adult life. It can be an inconvenience, but I mostly have it under control. Of course, I’ve tried numerous different things to ease the insomnia, with varying degrees of success – but kava was always one of the best. That is, before it became unavailable to buy here in the UK.

This latest study, led by researchers at the University of Melbourne certainly seems to support the plant’s apparent calming ability. It may prove to be very useful to the significant numbers of people, both in Australia and worldwide, who suffer from anxiety disorders.

Anxiety is a more common problem than many people may think. In particular, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is a blight to millions of people around the world; in Australia, 3% of people suffer from GAD, and the numbers are similar in North America and parts of Europe, with estimates in the UK being as high as one in 20. Over the past decade, I’ve known a huge number of people who suffer from anxiety, and unfortunately, treatments for this type of disorders are far from straightforward.

“Based on previous work we have recognised that plant based medicines may be a viable treatment for patients with chronic anxiety,” explained lead researcher Jerome Sarris at the University of Melbourne’s Department of Psychiatry, who believes that new an more effective options are needed for patients with anxiety, instead of the existing medications. Sarris stressed the complexity of GAD and the way it can significantly affect the daily lives of those who suffer from it, continuing to add that, “In this study we’ve been able to show that Kava offers a potential natural alternative for the treatment of chronic clinical anxiety. Unlike some other options it has less risk of dependency and less potential for side effects.

Cite this article:
Hammonds M (2013-07-15 06:53:09). Pacific plant could be good news for anxiety sufferers. Australian Science. Retrieved: Aug 25, 2026, from https://australianscience.com.au/health/pacific-plant-could-be-good-news-for-anxiety-sufferers/
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Mosquito-borne diseases: Fighting fire with fire

Markus — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:14:07 +0000

I have a decidedly “live and let live” approach to life. There are no animals in this world which I harbour any malicious feelings towards, regardless of how many of those animals would think nothing of poisoning, eating, maiming, or otherwise killing me (it’s a tough world out there). No animals, with one exception. I absolutely detest mosquitos – and not irrationally so.

You see, you might not realise it, but mosquitos are actually the most dangerous animal in the world. Yes, seriously. They may not look like much, but every year, mosquitos will spread diseases to 700 million people. That’s 10% of the human population on this planet. Many of the diseases spread by mosquitos are potentially fatal, and mosquitos are responsible for over 2 million deaths every year. Needless to say, some way of curbing the spread of mosquito-borne disease would be a huge success in combating illness worldwide.

Interestingly, an unusual but potentially effective method has been devised by Ary Hoffmann and Michale Turelli at the University of Melbourne. I say unusual, because their method of preventing mosquitos from spreading disease is to actually infect the mosquitos with a disease of their own.

When mosquitos are infected with a type of bacteria called wolbachia, it renders them unable to spread viruses such as dengue fever. Dengue is a particularly nasty disease spread by mosquitos, for which no real treatments or vaccines are available. Around 40,000 people die every year from dengue, with around 2,400 cases reported over the past few years in Northern Australia.

Wolbachia bacteria are actually surprisingly common, existing naturally in around 70% of all insects. The particular strain used in this study was discovered by Hoffmann in 1988, in Australian fruit flies. Nature, it seems, is full of serendipities. In 2011, studies showed a great success. Mosquitos infected with wolbachia cannot spread the dengue virus!

However, there was still a problem to address. Wolbachia also affected the mosquitos eggs, preventing them from hatching. While this may seem, at first, like a good thing in that it may cull the mosquito population, the problem lies in the fact that if the infected mosquitos all die off, the remaining insects will still be quite able to spread disease.

The solution, perhaps even more counterintuitively, involves giving the mosquitos resistance to insecticide. At first glance, this idea may seem unappealing, but it isn’t without merit. In fact it’s quite ingenious. Areas which are particularly prone to mosquito-borne infections tend to use insecticides as a way to control the mosquito populations and curb disease. In these regions, the non-infected mosquitos would be killed off by insecticide, so that the population of mosquitos would adapt. The end result would be a population of mosquitos which cannot spread the dengue virus.

Similarly, the insecticide resistance gene would not be able to be passed to any non-infected mosquitos. A female mosquito would pass on both the gene and the bacteria to her eggs, while any non-infected female mating with an infected male would lead to eggs which will never hatch (due to cytoplasmic incompatibility). The end result would be that the only offspring from this population of infected mosquitos would also be infected, and therefore would be unable to spread viral infections to humans.

As well as dengue, the method is promising as a way of preventing other mosquito-borne illnesses, such as yellow fever, and perhaps eventually even malaria. The latest strain of bacteria which Hoffmann and Turelli are working with, named wMelPop, is a strong blocker of dengue and other viruses. Perhaps this method could eventually help to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases altogether.

the meantime, I’m noticing that typing up this article is having the psychosomatic effect of making me feel rather itchy. I’m going to take this as a sign that I should stop writing about mosquitos now. And perhaps take a shower…

Image: A Tasmanian mosquito feeding on human blood. Credit: J. J. Harrison/Wikimedia Commons

Cite this article:
Hammonds M (2013-05-14 00:14:07). Mosquito-borne diseases: Fighting fire with fire. Australian Science. Retrieved: Aug 25, 2026, from https://australianscience.com.au/health/mosquito-borne-diseases-fighting-fire-with-fire/
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India, Novartis, and Australia’s new patent law

Charles Ebikeme — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:31:36 +0000

April 1 — about the only thing on the internet that wasn’t a huge Poisson d’Avril was the “landmark

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