Grass Eating Bacteria Produce Biofuel

Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Georgia have successfully engineered bacteria that eat switchgrass and convert it into ethanol by digesting it. This process is much faster and cheaper than any other method of producing biofuel. It is a wonderful re-producible resource, but has been much more expensive than other fuels, making biofuel largely economically impractical. The creation of the bacteria changes the game because it is cheaper than crude oil. The only issue is that it is not known if biofuel is any better for the environment that traditional fossil fuels. Although we are able to reproduce it and the source is plant matter, burning it may be just as harmful on the environment, so it doesn’t solve too many problems in that respect. However, the researchers ability to create the bacteria is a triumph and a stepping stone for other projects.

The next phase of this idea is taking place at Arizona State University. Here synthetic biologists are working on generating bacteria that can turn carbon dioxide into crude oil. If this process is successful it could change the world. One of the researchers on the project, Joel Garreau states that the chemical process to turn Co2 into crude oil takes 27 steps. They have a biotechnology lab where they are growing algae “and taking these 27 chemical steps and stitching them together in one organism.” It seems that our energy future lies in creating bacteria to make fuel for us. Using the power of bacteria’s biological process can quickly and cheaply create fuels like ethanol and crude oil. While the Co2 eating bacteria is still in the works, the grass eating and biofuel producing bacteria is a reality. The researchers are now mass producing the bacteria to get them up to an economically viable scale to work on larger scale production.

Manziel Needs Gordon

The Cleveland Browns almost had a great team this year. They recruited Johnny Menziel in the draft and they hold one of the top five wide receivers in the country, Josh Gordon. Together, they are great. Separately, Manziel will have a hard time getting the team together to stand up to the very physical division of the NFL they are in. The problem is that Manziel was able to throw deep in college, but he depended on his teammates to be there to catch whatever he presented them with. Gordon is still currently on the team, but he may be suspended for a year. This leaves Manziel alone, without someone to lean on like Gordon. The rest of the team is not strong enough to help him the way that Gordon could have so this leaves Manziel with a pretty bleak looking rookie year.

It comes down to the Browns not being smart about Gordon’s possible suspension and taking some risks during the draft. During the 2014 National Football League Draft the Browns traded down to No. 9, hoping that they could get a receiver from Texas A&M named Mike Evans. However, Evans didn’t slip and went to Tampa Bay as many predicted. When that didn’t work out in their favor they went for a corner instead after trading up to 8 and then they stopped looking for a receiver. The draft game is tricky, but it doesn’t seem like the Browns did a good job of anticipating what they needed to do to make this draft work in their favor. This is a shame because Manziel is a good player, but without a team to back him up, the Cleveland Browns are in for a pretty tricky season. Manziel has been described as a quarterback that plays like a running back, but his skills may not be enough. The matchups for this season may see that he is the only valuable player and have even more incentive to sack the Browns quarterback.

Pfizer Attempting to Buy AstraZeneca

The United States drug maker, Pfizer Inc. is working on a bid to buy the UK Company AstraZeneca Plc. So far two of their bids have been rejected and Pfizer is hoping that AstraZeneca will come around to the tune of $100 billion.

AstraZeneca stands as Pfizer’s rival in the UK so it would be a great help to the US Company to absorb their business. Additionally, it would increase their output of cancer drugs and cut costs for the company and give them tax savings. It makes sense why Pfizer is pushing so hard for the deal, despite AstraZeneca’s wriggling and evasions.

The potential of such a deal going through has boosted the stock of both companies. Shares in AstraZeneca have jumped 17 percent after news broke that Pfizer was pursuing them again. Pfizer’s stock also rose slightly, about 1.5 percent, in US premarket trading. If this deal were to go through it would be the largest foreign acquisition of any British firm. Additionally, it would mark the largest ever, pharmaceutical deal. The Chief Executive for Pfizer, Ian Read said that “society wants products faster, they want more products and they want value…Industry is responding to society’s request for increased efficiencies and productivity.” If the merger goes through Pfizer would be able to get more cancer medication through the pipeline, as well as other drugs to keep up with the reference ‘need of society’ to have lots of medication available quickly. Additionally, they may be able to drive down some of their cost so that they can keep up with the generic drug alternatives.

So far, AstraZeneca has been unwilling to talk to Pfizer about the deal, despite more money and repeated attempts from the US Company. However, Pfizer is not giving up hope because they really believe that this merger makes the most sense for both their company and AstraZeneca investors.

More Evidence of Link Between Periodontal Disease and Cardiovascular Risk

There has long been evidence that periodontal issues and gingivitis have had links to issues with cardiovascular health, even cardiovascular disease. A new, large multicentre study drives this point home. The report was released on April 9, 2014 and used over 15,000 patients with chronic coronary heart disease and information about their dental health.

The results showed that many of the 15,000 showed indicators of periodontal disease like very few remaining teeth or gum bleeding. These symptoms went along with cardiovascular disease and were also accompanied by socioeconomic risk factors. One the other hand those patients who had fewer risk factors of CVD like lower glucose levels, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, systolic blood pressure, and waist circumference had more teeth and few dental issues. In these, more cardiovascular healthy, patients they were also less likely to smoke and have Diabetes and had more teeth. These patients usually had achieved a higher level of education, used more alcohol and had more stress at work.

This report was published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology. They asked those in the study to report how many teeth they had (non, 1-14, 15-20, 21-25, or 26-32 ALL). They also asked them to report on whether their gums bled when they brushed their teeth. 16% of those in the study reported that they had no teeth, a very high number. 41% said they had less than 15 teeth remaining, and just over a quarter of those surveyed said they had experienced gum bleeding when brushing their teeth. There were some differences when it came to different ethnic groups. The highest rate of both tooth loss and gum bleeding came from Eastern Europe. Of everyone questioned, nearly 70% claimed to be smokers.

The facts cannot be ignored. Cardiovascular disease is greatly affected by gum and mouth health. The only way to stop this is to increase education, try to fight poverty, and convince people that for their own self interest they need to stop smoking and to brush and floss. Cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest killers on the planet and anything we can do to prevent more people from dying is worthwhile.

The Interworking of the Facebook New Feed

Have you ever wondered how facebook decides what goes on your news feed? Is everything that someone posts on your account? Turns out the answer is no. Not all of your friends activities pop up on your newsfeed because there is a limited amount that they can post on your news feed per day because there isn’t enough room to post everything, plain and simple. The problem is that the competition for news feed space is getting more and competitive, as there is more traffic on facebook. Last year, the number of pages that people “liked” went up by over 50%.

So as traffic increases, facebook makes decisions about how to filter what they are going to put on your news feed, but they don’t usually communicate this to their customers, which as resulted in some criticism of the social media giant. This is especially upsetting to small businesses that have encouraged fans/consumers to “like” their page and who pay for facebook ads only to have their reach and advertising power filtered, seemingly randomly, by facebook. Facebook claims that with the amount of likes and friends that people have, the posts flooding into their news feed could be up to 15,000 per day. To help readers handle this, they do not treat each post equally and therefore filter some out. Facebook aims to show the most engaging posts to the viewer. It is in their best interest to keep the viewer entertained, so they don’t want to fill your news feed with things you do not want to see.

To filter your news feed, facebook uses an algorithm, known as EdgeRank. This analyzes relevance to the users using over 100,000 different indicators of importance. Some of the most powerful factors are how popular a post is (how many likes), how popular past posts have been by the same creator, what kind of post it is (photo, status update, video, etc.), and how recently it was posted. It comes down to the more successful and popular you are on facebook the more you earn space on friend’s news feeds. In some ways it feels like going back to high school.







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Technology Increases Cosmetic Surgery for Men

The tech industry is booming and as a result, more and more men in Silicon Valley are utilizing cosmetic dentistry (i.e. veneers) and minor plastic surgery like liposculpture. The surge in technology means more competition for high-powered jobs in these companies and men seem to feel like they have an extra boost if they improve their appearance. At Vistnes Plastic Surgery in Palo Alto, CA, Dr. Dean Vitnes said he’s definitely noticed more men coming into his practice for some non-surgical treatments like botox and Ulthera or some small, simply surgeries like eyelifts or liposculpture. Dr. Hartley, who specializes in veneers says the uptick in male patients definitely has to do with competition at work. Hartley says, “You have five or six guys vying for the same job and one looks handsome, has a nice smile, dresses well and looks sharp- he’s going to have an edge.” Dr. Hartley also points to a change in social values. Now it’s not just women who are judged for their looks, it’s men too. Hartley attributes this to living in an era where people in companies have to create social media profiles with pictures, conduct videoconferences and deliver keynote addresses. Appearance matters.

Dr. Hartley touts his product, veneers, as necessary because your smile is the first thing people look at. Just four veneers cost $8,000-$10,000 but many men are making the investment to help their careers and improve their looks when they are up on the big screen delivering a speech at conferences.

In the last generation men would never consider going under the knife, but now it is more socially acceptable and men are trying to appear younger to stay competitive in their fields. Dr. Vistnes says, “the whole paradigm for how we’re looking at the aging process is changing.”







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