Category Archives: Science

Can I be an astronaut when I grow up?

After seeing the video of Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut singing David Bowie’s Space Oddity from the International Space Station I came across several funny videos of him describing life aboard the space station, from how you sleep, wash your hands, and even puke in space! It struck me that the Canadian Space Agency is doing an amazing job at harnessing the power of social media and hopefully this is inspiring the next generation to push the boundaries and get interested in science and technology (or to be astronauts, why not?!).

Hard to imagine that being an astronaut is an actual job!  Despite the fact that I’m sure I wouldn’t have the necessary smarts or character (I am also too short, phew!), I just can’t imagine ever being brave enough.  I wonder if kids still dream of being one? Or if the scaling back of NASA’s manned missions and the Moon landings and space race turning to distant memories has dulled the dream? Perhaps the next phase of commercial space flight will revive the excitement.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

This got me to thinking about what will be our Moon landing? Man on Mars perhaps? Seems hard to imagine doesn’t it?  But imagine if it was possible. When I first heard that there were adverts looking for people interested in a one-way trip to Mars I was a little confused.  I understood that the possibility of a return journey was just too much of a challenge, but couldn’t believe any company (or agency) would be so upfront about the prospect of dropping some people off on Mars and then presumably handing them a suicide pill if they managed to get there alive.  I morbidly began thinking about who would apply…surely only people literally on a death wish.  They maybe wouldn’t be the best crew you could hope for!

But, that was my misunderstanding.  It turns out there is a serious plan.  Mars One, is a private company planning a manned mission to Mars by 2023.  It seems they are serious, over 80,000 people have already applied!  Imagine if you will, a seven month outward journey.  Seven months!  No water for washing, very closely confined with three other comrades.  Seven months! Then you land, just you four, and make your way to the pre-assembled (by machines) living quarters.  Imagine how crazy that would be.  The plan would then be that the original four will be joined in subsequent missions by more astronauts/immigrants in the years to follow, bringing more technology and materials necessary for expansion with them.  And so the colony grows…

Image credit: Mars One

Image credit: Mars One

The astronaut selection process is due to start this year, with them undergoing extensive Earth based testing over the several years between selection and launch.  Perhaps a sign of the times, but the plan is that the whole shebang will be televised, from astronaut selection, Earth based training, launch, transit, to landing and beyond.  As the company is a private enterprise, this will no doubt form a large part of the revenue required for the project.  Extraterrestrial reality TV.  This makes me slightly uncomfortable, especially when you think about the extreme challenges and dangers that would accompany this mission.  But I have to say I would definitely watch and I’m interested to see how this will all pan out.  Would I go?  Hell’s no!


Nanobot twofers for cancer treatment

'nano nano!'

‘nano nano!’

In case you don’t watch as much bad TV as me, you may not know what a ‘twofer’ is. As the great Jessica Simpson says ‘everybody loves a twofer’ – a twofer being something that has two uses, for the price of one. She was of course referring to a top that is also a dress, or trousers that unzip as shorts…but this is about a medical marvel, a twofer that might just save you life one day.

Recently pulblished in the Journal of the American chemical society is a research paper describing the development of a rattle-structured multifunctional up-conversion core/porous silica shell nanotheranostic. Wow, that’s a mouthful! From now on lets call them twofer nanobots  – now let me break them down for you!

TEM images showing the core/shell structure

The nanobots are tiny balls of exotic rare earth mixtures made to be of a uniform size around 25 nanometers (human hair would be 60,000 nanometers) with a hole in the centre (core).

Next, a little gadolinium (Gd) is added before the balls are coated with a silica coating until they are around 50 nanometers in size. Each of these parts has an important part to play…

There are at the moment two major methods to treat cancer; (1) chemotherapy, where a drug is used to destroy the tumor and; (2) radiotherapy where x-rays are used to similar effect.

There are problems associated with both; chemotherapy requires high doses which causes a lot of pain as well as damage to non-cancerous cells. Some tumors such as hypoxic tumors can also have a very high tolerance to radiation.

What if you could transport the chemotherapy drug into the tumor directly? This would reduce the dose and damage to healthy cells. What if you could find a way to make hypoxic tumors respond to radiotherapy? What if, along with this you could also image the tumor?

Enter the nanbot twofer! No, wait now its a threefer (chemo, radio, imaging) are there no end to nanobots talents?!

The core is used to transport chemotherapy drugs into the tumor, the gadolinium allows the nanobot to be seen inside the tumor so you can image alongside treatment, the same drugs can be also be used as a radiosensitizer to improve the effectiveness of the radiotherapy. The silica shell is added to improve biocompatibility, so that it isn’t rejected by the body, and to make sure the nanobots dont clump together.

So that’s chemotherapy, radiotherapy and imaging in one smart nanobot, take that cancer!



2013-04-19 14.30.07




2013-04-19 11.15.28

An ATOFMS in the Prather lab UCSD




Make it rain up in here


Snowy Glynhir







For more info on CalWater see:

*Science 339, 1572, 2013

Here Boy!









Loyal Bees get a Bonus Buzz

Photo courtesy of Katy Jenkins (The Glynhir Estate)

    A new study shows that certain plants are able to tailor the chemistry of their nectar to increase their attractiveness to honeybees. Plants have a wealth of chemical weapons at their disposal. The arsenal is usually used to fight off hungry insects but new research shows that they can also use chemistry to attract pollinators like the busy bee. In this case, caffeine is the chemical of choice. Caffeine was detected in the nectar from several varieties of Coffea and Citrus. These plants are also known to produce more fruit and seeds when pollinated by bees rather than another pollinator.

The scientists were able to train the bees (I’m imagining a bee bootcamp) to respond to a cue using a reward system. The bees were rewarded with sugar syrup or sugar syrup and caffeine. They found that the bees responded better to the caffeinated syrup, that they preferred it. Even better, the bees memory of where the caffeine was got better with time. The caffeine dose had improved their memory.

The weird thing is, bees don’t even like the taste of caffeine! In high doses, it repels the bees, higher still it would kill them. So the plants are able to tailor the mixture just so, to give the bees a nice buzz but not to drive them away, or worse… What do the plants gain from this? Bee loyalty of course. Making the bees more likely to visit that plant variety over another and improving its chance of survival. As for us, we know that caffeine in low doses is good for a boost but it also improves memory too.  I’m off for a brew.

Reference: Wright et al., Science. 339. 1202. 2013. 

Photo courtesy of Katy Jenkins (The Glynhir Estate)