AG SCIENTIFIC NEWS * BIOTECH NEWS
Sept 9th Gene Transfection , The Science is sound but will FDA & Consumers buy it?
Genetically modified (engineered) salmon is an Atlantic salmon. It has been modified by adding a growth hormone regulating gene from another fish - the Pacific Chinook salmon - as well as an on-switch gene from an Ocean Pout (Zoarces americanus, an eel-type fish) to the Atlantic Salmon's 40,000 genes. The genetically engineered Atlantic salmon eats all year round and gets bigger much more rapidly. Normal Atlantic salmon only feed during the spring and summer. The aim of the genetic modifications is to speed up the fish's growth, without affecting its eventual size or other characteristics. Results have show the gene transfection successful, normal Atlantic salmon take about three years to reach market size, while the genetically modified salmon now takes only 16 to 18 months to reach market size. (See photo)
Photo Credit : AP 18 month old GMO Salmon & non GMO salmon
FDA scientists gave a boost last week to the Massachusetts company that wants federal approval to market a genetically engineered salmon, declaring that the altered salmon is safe to eat and does not pose a threat to the environment. "GMO Salmon from the Massachusetts company AquAdvantage . . . is as safe to eat as food from other Atlantic salmon," the FDA staff wrote in a briefing document. Those findings will be presented Sept. 19 to a panel of scientific experts which will advise top officials at the FDA whether to approve the altered salmon. The panel is holding two days of meetings to hear from FDA staff, Aqua Advantage (the company behind the GMO Salmon) and the public. If approved the GMO Salmon will be the first gene modifed animal approved to be sold for human consuption.
The salmon’s approval would certainly help open a path for researchers, companies and scientists developing other genetically engineered animals, like cattle resistant to mad cow disease or pigs that could supply healthier bacon. Perhaps the infamous "Turducken" The flavorful Turkey - Duck combination might just become a November holiday staple.
Stand By lots more to come from this story as the GMO salmon to supermarket is far from a done deal.
Sept 6 Hurricane Earl brushed east coast with lots of hype & some wind...
For most Eastern states residents the Hurricane was a warning of what could happen and most all are happy that it did not come ashore stateside. If you would like more information on future Hurricanes and Tropical storms go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Hurricane center click below
Sept 2nd Gemzyme CEO still battling the take over storm!
Reported in Bloomberg Buisness puplications Thursday Sept 2nd Henri Termeer, a biotech industry pioneer and chief executive officer at Genzyme Corp., is on the verge of losing control of the company he transformed from a start-up in 1983 into a cutting-edge drugmaker with $4.5 billion in annual sales.
Pressured by an unsolicited $18.5 billion buyout offer from Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis SA, activist investors on his board and shareholders, Termeer says he will consider selling, if he can get the right price.
The CEO, 64, stands to make about $300 million from a sale to Sanofi. At the same time, Termeer is under siege. He says he will fight the drugmaker’s $69-a-share offer, saying it undervalues Genzyme’s research pipeline. He is contending with billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who gained control of two seats on the board in June, and is pressing for a higher stock price. And he has yet to resolve manufacturing glitches that led to product shortages, drove shares down as much as 43 percent from a 2008 high, and made the company vulnerable to a takeover.
“He’s caught between a plant in Allston that is a disaster, Icahn in bed with him and Sanofi banging on the door,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor, who has followed the biomedical industry for 30 years. “If Sanofi doesn’t fire him I think Icahn will.”
Offer Rejected
Genzyme, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, rejected Sanofi’s offer Aug. 30, saying it undervalued the company’s experimental medicines, including treatments for Gaucher disease and multiple sclerosis, as well as its progress in fixing manufacturing deficiencies. Sanofi made public its $69-a-share bid on Aug. 29 after two months of trying to get Termeer and his board to negotiate.
Though Termeer will receive about $23 million if he loses his job in a Genzyme sale, and he owned about 1.5 percent of the stock as of April, valued at about $283 million at $69 a share, the CEO said yesterday that he won’t hand over the company he built without a battle over price.
“The company is not for sale at $69 and we made that clear,” Termeer said in a telephone interview. “What the shareholders deserve is a fair value.” For the complete story click www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-01/biotech-pioneer-who-priced-world-s-most-expensive-drugs-loses-genzyme-grip.html
Aug 31st Take precations against Lymes Disease's Borrelia Burgdoferi
Summer and Fall are great times to take a hike or a go camping. The increase in the numbers of Lymes disease cases prompted this story in the online journal Science Daily, here is an abreviated version of that story and links to more information on Lymes and pathogenic bacteria, borrelia burgdoferi.
In humans, early symptoms of Lyme disease are often nondescript, flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, and fatigue, making it difficult to diagnose from symptoms alone. In about 70 percent of the cases, people will develop the typical bullseye-shaped rash associated with Lyme disease. If it's caught in the early stages it can be treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics; however, if it's not treated early, the result can be long-term severe joint pain, arthritis and neurological damage. The disease is named after the town of Lyme, Connecticut, where a number of cases were identified in 1975.
Picture credit: university of Illinois
University of Illinois graduate student Jennifer Rydzewski conducted a four-year survey of the small black-legged ticks (also known as deer ticks), their host animals, and their habitat preferences.
"Ticks in the nymph stage of their life cycle are responsible for the most human cases of Lyme disease because their peak seasonal activity coincides with increased human activity outdoors during the warmer summer and fall months, so it's important for people to take extra precautions."
Rydzewski used a disease triangle to illustrate how Lyme disease is spread. One point of the triangle is the host -- in this case, it could be a mouse, deer, or other bird or small mammal. A second point on the triangle is the pathogen Borrelia burgdoferi Bacteria en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borrelia_burgdorferi. In the case of Lyme disease, are spread by a vector, the tick. The third point of the triangle is the environment. "If you remove one of these components, the system fails and the disease can no longer be maintained.
"It's important to understand these host/vector/pathogen interactions in a dynamic landscape. Studying this multi-host pathogen can help us to discover ways to manage either the landscape or the host in order to control the vector and the pathogen."
For the complete Science Daily article and more information on Ticks, Lymes disease and prevention click: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100720165518.htm
Aug 27th Plants smarter than Animals?
This Story appears in the August issue of New Scientist www.newscientist.com/
Pity the tobacco hornworm caterpillar, which appears to have been outsmarted by its favourite food. Every time it feasts on tobacco leaves, it inadvertently converts molecules released by the plant into chemicals that call in the predatory big-eyed bug.
Like many plants, when tobacco is damaged – by hungry herbivores or otherwise – it gives off chemicals called green leaf volatiles (GLVs). These "SOS molecules" protect the plant by attracting predators that eat herbivores.
Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and colleagues have now discovered that the mix of GLVs produced by a tobacco plant damaged by a caterpillar and one damaged in the absence of caterpillars were subtly different.
When they released the two mixes in a field, the one that had been produced in the presence of a caterpillar attracted more big-eyed bugs. Chemical analysis revealed that the caterpillar's saliva reacts with the plant's pure GLVs to produce the more attractive version of the chemicals.
"In effect, the caterpillar calls the police on itself," says Baldwin. He suggests that crops could be genetically modified to release the improved signal as a defence against pests.
To link to the subscription page for New Scientist mag click: www.newscientistsubscriptions.com/Default.aspx
AUG 24th Scientific & Medical Experts Needed!
I recently discovered this great web site packed with information on our industry, read on...
The Science Advisory Board is the website home to an established network of life scientists with 49,587 current members! The goal of The Science Advisory Board is to improve communications between medical and life science professionals and the companies who provide this community with products and services. Voice your opinions on companies, products, protocols and even humor in a lively, real-time, interactive Online Community of science & medical professionals. Redeem generous rewards for participation in studies, contributing website content and referring colleagues. For more info : www.scienceboard.net/
Aug 20th The Four-Herb Chinese Medicine PHY906 Reduces Chemotherapy-Induced Gastrointestinal Toxicity
An ancient Chinese remedy for gastrointestinal problems may spare cancer patients the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy drugs, and boost the effectiveness of treatment, new research suggests.
The 1800 year-old recipe, called Huang Qin Tang, consists of a mix of flowers from the Chinese skullcap plant, extract of peonies, liquorice, and the fruit of the buckthorn tree.
The remedy has been used for years to treat stomach upsets and nausea. Now, researchers at start-up pharmaceutical company PhytoCeutica and Yale University School of Medicine, both in Connecticut, have shown that the blend can also aid cancer treatment, reducing diarrhoea and gut damage caused by chemotherapy in colon and rectal cancer patients.
To find out why the remedy worked, the researchers gave a dose of the herbal cocktail, called PHY906, with irinotecan - a chemotherapy drug - to mice with colon cancer, and found that it could restore gut cells which normally die off in response to irinotecan alone.
The mice given PHY906 experienced less toxicity, lost less weight and showed more anti-tumour activity than controls that were given irinotecan alone. PHY906 also encouraged the growth of new intestinal epithelial cells and prevented inflammation.
For the text of an interview with Yale research pharmacologist Yung-Chi Cheng go to Medical News Today,
For the Scientific Abstract and complete paper that appears in this months Science Translational Medicine go to stm.sciencemag.org/content/2/45/45ra59.short
AG Scientific does not stock PHY906 but we do stock several biochemicals that can inhibit angiogenesis, several are being used by researchers experimenting in the control cancer tumor growth. for more info :
http://www.agscientific.com/cellular-process/angiogenesis.html
Aug 15th Olfactics & Olfactory Diagnostics
Researchers have known for years that smell of cancer patients is chemically different from healthy individuals. One more study featured in British Journal of Cancer brings us a bit closer to an inexpensive, easy-to-use, portable device for home diagnostics.
Most of the VOCs reported in this study appear for the first time in the literature, adding to the wide spectrum of chemicals previously proposed as cancer biomarkers. Some of the chemicals - predictive of lung and prostate cancers - are frequently released to the environment through petroleum spills.
For more information on the research and references to this story click:
olfactics.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-cancers-and-petroleum-spills.html
Aug 14th Open Sourcing Alzheimers research
As continued follow up on the New York times story of collaboration in Alzheimers research , Science-Chemist-Blogger "Wavefunction" posted the following in his Friday blog; In the middle of all that disappointing news about failed treatments targeting beta-amyloid, here's some silver lining. A lot of people think that the real reason all these drugs are not fighting AD is not because they are ineffective per se but because they are administered too late, long after the disease has manifested itself. Thus the logical step toward making these therapies more effective would be in detecting AD earlier.
So identifing biomarkers is extremly important! For the complete blog follow the below link to Wavefunctions blogsite.
wavefunction.fieldofscience.com/2010/08/outsourcing-alzheimer-diagnosis.html
Aug 12th Researcher shelve egos and advance understanding of alzheimers
Thursday Aug 12th Reported in the New York Times; After years of colaboration scientists are making progress in understanding Alzheimers. In 2003, a group of scientists and executives from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the drug and medical-imaging industries, universities and nonprofit groups joined in a project that experts say had no precedent: a collaborative effort to find the biological markers that show the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain.
The key to the Alzheimer’s project was an agreement as ambitious as its goal: not just to raise money, not just to do research on a vast scale, but also to share all the data, making every single finding public immediately, available to anyone with a computer anywhere in the world.
No one would own the data. No one could submit patent applications, though private companies would ultimately profit from any drugs or imaging tests developed as a result of the effort.
“It was unbelievable,” said Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s not science the way most of us have practiced it in our careers. But we all realized that we would never get biomarkers unless all of us parked our egos and intellectual-property noses outside the door and agreed that all of our data would be public immediately.”
Now, the effort is bearing fruit with a wealth of recent scientific papers on the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s using methods like PET scans and tests of spinal fluid. More than 100 studies are under way to test drugs that might slow or stop the disease.
And the collaboration is already serving as a model for similar efforts against Parkinson’s disease. A $40 million project to look for biomarkers for Parkinson’s, sponsored by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, plans to enroll 600 study subjects in the United States and Europe.
The work on Alzheimer’s “is the precedent,” said Holly Barkhymer, a spokeswoman for the foundation. “We’re really excited.”
For the complete story and back story: www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/research/13alzheimer.html
For more on Alzheimers: www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp
Brain tour: www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_4719.asp
AUG 11th Scripts gets grant to study personalized medicine!
As reported in Tuesdays San Diego Union-Tribune the French Biopharma Giant
Saniofi-Aventis
will present $1.6 million in grants to
Scripts health genetic researchers
. Scripts spokesman Johnny Hagerman said the money would go towards personalized medicine treatments for diabeties and ailments related to aging.
Scripts reasearchers are looking for ways to use personal genetic information to improve the delivery of health care. In exchange for the funding, Saniofi - Aventis will get nonexclusive rights to new tests and other research tools developed under the grants.
AUG 9th, Mass High Tech's on line news "Journal of New England technology" reports:
Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc., a cancer therapeutics developer in Waltham, Massachusetts has raised $6 million of a planned $7 million securities offering, according to a regulatory filing from Wednesday.
Syndax makes an oral HDAC inhibitor, called entinostat, that is designed to aid a cancer patient’s response to treatment by modifying tumor characteristics. The company was co-founded in San Diego in 2005 by Eckard Weber of Domain Associates and Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. It was founded with an exclusive license from the Salk Institute for the intellectual property from Evans’ research on histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition and the regulation of nuclear receptors.
Company president and CEO Joanna Horobin said the financing will support company operations toward the completion of a Phase 2 breast cancer study, expected to return results in the first half of 2011. The funds were backed by all of Syndax's previous investors, including Domain Associates, MPM Capital, Avalon Ventures, Forward Ventures and Pappas Ventures, as well as Mitsubishi Corp.
In February, Syndax raised $9 million of a planned $16 million securities offering. Prior to that, the company pulled in $40 million in a Series A financing round in April 2007.
Aug 5th : Meat from cloned cow offspring in UK food chain, 1 bull MIA...
Reported by The AP & UK's Guardian Newspaper: LONDON – Meat from the offspring of a cloned cow in the United States entered the British food chain without official authorization, the UK's Food Standards Agency said Tuesday. The agency carried out its investigation after media reports said milk from a cow produced from a cloned parent was sold in Britain. Products from cloned animals and their offspring are considered "novel foods" in Britain and cannot be marketed unless authorized by the FSA, a government department.
One of the bulls, known as Dundee Paratrooper, was slaughtered in July 2009, and its meat entered the food chain and "will have been eaten," the agency said.
The other bull, called Dundee Perfect, was slaughtered on July 27, but officials stopped its meat from entering the food chain, the FSA said. The meat is still held in refrigerators at a British farm and did not reach consumers.
A third cow, Dundee Paradise — also an offspring of the same cloned U.S. cow — is MIA but believed to be hiding in UK dairy herd .
For the complete story: www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/03/clone-cows-meat-food-standards
Aug 2nd Cambridge Healthtech Institute to host a biotech Conference & Short Courses in Boston in November.
November 2-4th Boston's World Trade Center will be home to the "Discovery On Target" Biotech conference. This years focus is Phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3K). PI3K's have become novel therapeutic targets in developing tumor treatments, due to their influence of various signaling pathways and cell functions such as cell growth. In the last few years, new applications for non-tumor related diseases are slowly emerging, such as inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases or diabetes. This conference is focusing on the challenges and also on lessons learned when developing targets for PI3K, Akt and mTOR and also on current new developments.
Here is an overview of the Topics to be Addressed:
- Novel expression and purification strategies
- Inhibiting related kinase pathways
- Addressing the challenge of specificity and efficacy
- Clinical trials and lessons learned
- Cardiovascular risk factors
- The Effect of Mutual Suppression of the PI3K/Akt/Mtor Pathway by Combining Rapamycin and Perifosine
Full conference schedule & registration www.discoveryontarget.com/Discoveryontarget_content.aspx
Link to AG SCientifics Rapamycin & Phosphatase Inhibitors
www.agscientific.com/rapamycin-streptomyces-hygroscopicus-1.html
www.agscientific.com/phosphatase-inhibitor-cocktail-i.html
Follow up to the French Biotech giants bid to purchase Genzyme the New york times reports that Sanofi-Aventis is likely to make an unsolicited offer of up to $70 a share for Genzyme, raising the stakes for what could become one of the year’s biggest deals, people briefed on the matter said Wednesday.
Sanofi’s board met on Wednesday and agreed to let management make a formal proposal, one of these people said. At $70 a share, Sanofi’s bid would be worth about $18.6 billion.
Sanofi would likely issue a bear hug letter that would outline its proposed bid, these people said. Such a letter is friendly on its surface, but signals a willingness to go hostile if necessary.
Such a move could put pressure on Genzyme’s directors, some of whom have been more receptive to Sanofi’s informal approach than others, these people said. A bear hug letter could also rally Genzyme shareholders.
Genzyme’s shares have climbed about 26 percent since reports surfaced last Friday of Sanofi’s approach.
Complete story at , www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/business/29genzyme.html
July 25th French Biotech Giant investigates potential purchase of Genzyme!
As reported in the Monday morning Wall Street Journal , France's Sanofi-Aventis SA has made an informal acquisition approach to biotechnology drug maker Genzyme Corp. The two sides have begun sounding out each other's interest in a deal before entering into formal talks and a completed transaction is far away, these people cautioned. Sanofi and Genzyme declined to comment.
Sanofi, which focuses on cardiology, oncology and internal medicine, as well as metabolic diseases, central nervous system disorders and vaccines, has been expanding its biologics presence through small deals. In January, for instance, it announced an agreement with privately held biotech KaloBios Pharmaceuticals to develop an antibody treating an antibiotic-resistant respiratory infection. Terms were not disclosed.
Genzyme makes drugs for rare, inherited disorders, such as Cerezyme for Gaucher disease and Fabrazyme for Fabry disease. The company's so-called biologic medicines are among the industry's most complicated to develop and make, and they therefore command high prices.
One attraction for Sanofi lies in the very nature of biotech drugs, which are harder for generic companies to copy. The urgency for Sanofi to find new products was underscored Friday, when the Food and Drug Administration approved a generic version of the company's lucrative blood-thinner Lovenox made by rival Novartis AG and partner Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. This continues the trend of big drug makers gobbling up smaller biotechnology companies.
For complete article click: online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703294904575385270133586064.html
July 22
Reported Wednesday in the MIT E-Magazine "Technology Review", The plummeting cost of DNA sequencing has enabled scientists to explore the genetic complexities of cancer uncovering a growing number of genetic mutations that drive cancer. Now this genetic knowledge is being used to direct drug development by testing specific compounds on 1,000 cancer cell lines that incorporate many of these mutations. The findings will help pharmaceutical companies design clinical trials so that they include only those patients most likely to respond to a drug. Ultimately, physicians hope to be able to screen a patient's tumor and choose the most effective drug based on its specific genetic profile.
Researchers will screen 400 compounds on 1,000 lines of cancer cells derived from a variety of types of tumors. (Previous efforts to screen new drugs on cancer cell lines have focused on just tens of different lines.) Collectively, the cells possess about 70 cancer-linked genetic mutations, about 50 to 80 percent of the mutations that have been uncovered to date. "The extent of our genomic characterization is unmatched," says Cyril Benes, director of The Center for Molecular Therapeutics at Mass General. "It is this combination of extensive data sets that permits us to look at multiple factors influencing drug response." Eventually, scientists aim to sequence the entire protein-coding region of all the cell lines, enabling even more comprehensive analysis. For the complete story click below:
www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25832/
A related story was reported in Wednesday's Bloomberg Business week: Interleukin Genetics Inc. and CyGene Laboratories Inc. are among 13 makers of genetic tests sold directly to consumers told by U.S. regulators that their products may be medical devices needing federal approval.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent letters to the companies saying the tests “appear to meet the definition of a device.” Interleukin doesn’t believe its tests are devices and will provide information to regulators to support its position, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company said today in a regulatory filing.
Interleukin sells tests through the company’s website to help consumers learn about their heart health and choose diets that best fit them based on their individual genes.
CyGene offers “personal DNA testing that makes a difference” to help consumers learn if they have genetic predispositions to visions disorders including glaucoma and macular degeneration and heart problems, diabetes and obesity, the Coral Springs, Florida-based company said on its website.
The FDA also sent a letter to a 14th company, Sequenom Inc, based in San Diego, which markets prenatal diagnostic tests through doctors to help pregnant women learn if their unborn children have genetic abnormalities that may lead to birth defects. The letter said the diagnostic test may meet the definition of a device subject to federal review.
The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to conduct a hearing tomorrow on gene- testing services.
July 15
Diagnostics startup Metamark Genetics lands $22M funding
As reported in the Tuesday journal of New England technology : Metamark Genetics Inc., a molecular diagnostics firm, has taken in a $22 million Series B round of financing, which it intends to direct toward research, development and clinical testing, as well as its commercial establishment.
The company has developed diagnostic tests that will enable a personalized treatment plan to be developed in treating cancer. Its Prognosis Determinants platform identifies genes that play a role in progressing a cancerous tumor.
Founded in 2007 by Lynda Chin, a scientific director at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School, Metamark notes on its website that the company is in the processing of moving its headquarters to Cambridge. Kenneth Weg, former chairman of Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., serves as chairman and acting CEO of Metamark Genetics.
July 13
UCSD Researchers Suppress Embryonic Stem Cell Tumors
As reported in the North County Times.com 7/6: A UCSD research team says it has found a way to inhibit the distressing propensity of human embryonic stem cells to form tumors, or “teratomas”
. The research focused on a protein called Nanog, essential to the unlimited replication of embryonic stem cells. Nanog also suppresses cell differentiation signals. Interfering with Nanog’s function inhibits the replication, and assists in differentiation. The differentiated cells are not vulnerable to making teratomas like the undifferentiated embryonic stem cells are.
Other UCSD researchers were Steven Briggs, a professor of biology, and biologists Matteo Moretto-Zita, Hua Jin, Zhouxin Shen and Tongbiao Zhao.
Last month, Xu received a $1.2 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for another research project, to make induce immune tolerance to transplants of cells grown from human embryonic stem cells. This was part of $25 million in grants for immune tolerance research from CIRM.
The paper, “Phosphorylation stabilizes Nanog by promoting its interaction with Pin1,” will be available at PNAS’ Web site later Tuesday.
July 12th SPAIN victorious 1-0 over the Netherlands in World Cup Soccer tournament! Congradulations to Kourosh T for winning the AG Scientific/ESPN soccer pool and recieving the custom Spain Soccer Jersey as a prize.
July 8th
As reported Wednesday in the Philadelphia business journal: Radnor, PA based PolyMedix Inc has received a NIH grant to develop antimicrobial compounds to combat malaria. The grant could total as much as 4 million dollars over four years!
The goal of the first phase of research is to generate proof-of-concept through in vitro and in vivo efficacy testing.
“Current therapies for malaria are plagued by increasingly rapid drug resistance, which has become endemic in certain regions of the world,” said Richard Scott, vice president of research at PolyMedix. “Our defensin-mimetic antimicrobial compounds mimic human host-defense proteins and have a mechanism of action distinct from those of current anti-malarial drugs, a mechanism which is intended to make bacterial resistance unlikely to develop.”
To read the complete article click: PolyMedix gets NIH grant to develop malaria treatments - Philadelphia Business Journal
June 24
VuVuZeLa lovechild of the Kazoo or curse of the devil?
Exerpt from a story from Alan Marnett at BENCHFLY.COM
The world is learning the auditory joy of the vuvuzela – the lovechild of a kazoo on steroids and a swarm of killer bees. An April 2010 study by the South African Medical Journal revealed the average sound exposure level during a game to be over 100dB, with peak levels averaging 140dB.
According to the NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), regular exposure of more than 1 minute to sounds over 100dB risks permanent hearing loss. Here are a few more familiar noises to put the vuvuzela in perspective:
• 80 dB Garbage disposal
• 90 dB Lawnmower
• 103 dB Jet flyover at 100 feet
• 110 dB Jackhammer
• 120 dB Thunderclap
• 130 dB Shotgun firing, Jet takeoff
So next time you flip on a game, fire up your lawnmower and move it into your living room for a taste of the live action. No wonder players and fans are having trouble sleeping after games (and we don’t just mean Robert Green…).
Complete story and link to BenchFly
www.benchfly.com/blog/is-world-cup-killing-your-experiments-and-your-hearing/
June 23
BEE Decline in UK result of chemical cocktail...
As Reported in the Guardian.co.uk June 22nd, A cocktail of chemicals from pesticides could be damaging the brains of British bees, according to scientists about to embark on a study into why the populations of the insects