Monthly Archives: September 2007

Caffeine, Painkillers, and Liver Damage

Posted by spinneret on September 26, 2007 1 comment

We recently reported on how acetaminophen can slow bone growth. Now, researchers in the US are warning that consuming large amounts of caffeine while taking acetaminophen, the widely used painkiller, could potentially cause liver damage. The combination of painkiller and …

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Diagnosing Disease With a CD Player

Posted by spinneret on September 21, 2007 4 comments

Years ago, I wrote about the lab-on-a-CD concept (actually it was in the September 2001 issue of Reactive Reports). Now, it seems the use of CD-ROMs and DVDs and the hardware used to play these popular audio and video compact …

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Poison Darts and Poison Pens

Posted by spinneret on September 19, 2007 Comments Off

Many years ago, I reported on the earliest synthesis of the analgesic compound epibatidine from the poison frog Epipedobates tricolor. You’ll notice I was careful to say poison frog, not poison dart frog. In the prestigious pages of Science in …

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Droning On About Bee Chemistry

Posted by spinneret on September 6, 2007 2 comments

Not spiders, but bees. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have identified an odorant receptor that allows male bee drones to find a queen in flight. The receptor is present on the male antennae and can detect an available …

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Painkiller Slows Bone Growth

Posted by spinneret on September 4, 2007 Comments Off

A press release just in announced that “Paracetamol, one of most used analgesics, could slow down bone growth”. In vitro tests apparently demonstrated that the compound slows bone regeneration in the proverbial test-tube. The press release writer missed a serious …

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Heat Resistant Paint

Posted by David Bradley on September 1, 2007 2 comments

A way to toughen up the latex particles used to make emulsion paints has been developed by UK chemists. The approach involves adding tiny slivers of clay armor to make the particles more hard wearing and fire resistant. Until now, …

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