Man O Man !

Man O Man !

 

When he is without money, he eats vegetables at home;

When he has money, he eats vegetables in a fine restaurant.

 

When he is without money, he rides bicycle to work;

When he has money, he rides bicycle to exercise.

 

When he is without money, he walks to eat food;

When he has money, he walks to burn food.

 

When he is without money, he wishes to get married;

When he has money, he wishes to get divorced.

 

When he is without money, his wife becomes secretary; 

When he has money, his secretary becomes wife.

cheers
Mohan Ranasinghe

Only The Best

“The princes and their armies were beautiful, chivalrous, and of good age, family and birth, looking as if Indra had descended to earth and was marching towards Janakpur.” (Janaki Mangala, 9) rūpa sīla baya bansa birūda bala dala bhaye | manahum̐ purandara nikara utari avanihiṃ cale || With an arranged marriage, the union that takes place is really between two families. The bride and groom hardly know one another beforehand, so to foretell whether or not the relationship will stand the test of time, the standings of the two families involved are assessed. If it has been proved in countless past generations that such marriages worked, that the character of the support system was properly suited to the time and circumstance, then there is an increased likelihood that the same characteristics will be passed on to the present day participants. Even if the values weren’t explicitly instilled, just growing up in a pious environment can do wonders. One actually teaches more with the example they set than with the words of instruction they offer. Man, being born ignorant, is always unsure of the right move to take. To settle doubts, others are observed, for if they follow a particular route and don’t get harmed by it, then there is less of a risk in following their example. One event in particular saw the noblest families from around the world ready to accept the daughter of a famous king, whose qualities were so sublime that he was respected in every land. Why were there multiple families involved? As these events took place during the Treta Yuga, all marriages then were arranged by the parents. Not to be mistaken for an artificial way of suppressing the natural desires for romantic interaction, the marriages were arranged to stay in line with dharma. The Vedic term “dharma” can be translated to mean religion   , but its root meaning is an essential characteristic. The dharma of fire is heat and light, of water wetness, of grass green color, and so on. As objects can have more than one property, that which is foremost becomes its dharma. There is also no question of something assuming a dharma or rejecting it. Dharma always stays with the object; it defines its existence. For the living beings, their dharma is the penchant to serve. To know why this penchant exists, one must know their real identity. The soul is the identifying aspect within every life form, as the temporary coverings are just that: temporary. As shirts, pants and coats can be put on and taken off, so the gross collection of material elements can be accepted, manipulated, and then eventually discarded, with the identity of the individual remaining unchanged. When these forms are accepted, the dharma of the individual gets covered up, sort of like putting a shade on a bright lamp. The existence of the soul never ceases, so the dharma is always there. Depending on the type of dress accepted, knowledge of that characteristic may be forgotten to varying degrees. If we have a knife and think that it should be used as a spoon or fork, obviously we will not be following the proper guidelines. The knife is very sharp for a reason. It is meant to cut things. If it is used as a utensil to place food in the mouth, there is every chance of the tongue being cut or some other accident happening which carries negative consequences. The spirit soul trapped in a material body similarly has a constitutional purpose. Through ignorance only the living being accepts their temporary forms to be their true identity. They see the gross collection of material elements on others to represent their identities as well. Sex life is based entirely on this illusion. We see someone of the opposite sex and measure their attractiveness based on their outward features, but what we don’t see is that they are a spirit soul at the core. Their collection of blood, pus and mucus will gradually morph over the years to the point that they may cease to be attractive, but their identity will not change throughout the process. What is the harm in succumbing to this illusion? Just as the knife is meant to cut, the soul is meant to serve. That service is meant for a higher entity, one who is not illusioned by the material elements. Through these truths, we get one definition of God and His standing. God is just our word to describe Him, but He can also be referred to as the Supreme Soul, for He is spirit just like us but without a tendency towards ignorance. The human life is considered the most valuable because it carries with it the potential to develop consciousness to the point that the proper identity of the individual and the proper set of activities, namely the directing of the service mentality toward the appropriate area, can be revealed. From this information, the ultimate mission in life becomes discernable. Dharma accepts an additional definition: a type of maintenance system having guiding principles, where regulations are instilled that help the individual understand the mission in life and achieve it. It is not that everyone will be open to immediately accepting all the truths of spiritual life passed on by the Vedas. Therefore there are scales of dharma, meant to target the varying levels of intelligence. The idea is that by following the more streamlined systems of regulation, one can gradually ascend the chain of knowledge. This ascendency continues even into the next life. Therefore, should someone never learn about the soul in this life, if they follow the prescribed regulations for their order, which is their occupational duty tied to their behavioral characteristics, they can find themselves in a better position in the next life. The next life is simply a new demarcation of time. We could even think of each new day as a new life, for the time continuum hasn’t changed with the rising of the sun in the morning; only our perspective on the timeline changes. Since time is continuous, even within one’s lifetime the same spiritual advancement can be made. Illusion is the largest stumbling block towards assuming one’s real dharma. Illusion’s strongest force is sex life, especially the kind which is not based on religious principles. Therefore ideally from the very beginning, when children are young, the tendency towards illicit sex    is checked by the parents through the marriage institution. “I am the strength of the strong, devoid of passion and desire. I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles, O Lord of the Bharatas [Arjuna].” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita   , 7.11) In ancient times, the pious kings were especially conscious of the need to marry off their daughters when they reached the appropriate age. If you have an abundance of unmarried women in society, illicit sex will result. From illicit sex comes an unwanted and unloved population. From lack of loving attention comes a society full of rogues who have no culture in even the basic standards of decency. The women get exploited through this system as well, for the men can easily get sex from them and not be responsible for their welfare. The ancient marriages weren’t that complicated to arrange. You get an expert brahmana, or priest, and have them review the child’s astrological signs from the exact time of their birth. The constellation of stars at any particular given moment can be either auspicious or inauspicious. Any person taking birth at one of these times can thus have their future predicted, including what type of character they will grow up to have. From the different characteristics ascertained, matches would be made. It wasn’t that just any boy and girl were suitable matches for marriage. The arrangement had to be “in the cards” so to speak, astrologically compatible. One king faced a dilemma in this area. He had a most precious daughter, who was so beautiful, kind, sweet, compassionate and virtuous that the king didn’t want to let her go. The daughter essentially accepts a new family after marriage, leaving her father and his family bereft of her association. This daughter was special because the king had been childless prior to her appearance. She was considered the greatest fortune in his life, because she appeared from nowhere to give him and his family tremendous happiness. This young girl wasn’t the king’s biological daughter. He had found her one day while ploughing a field. Thinking it was appropriate to protect and take care of her, the king really wanted to take her home and raise her as his daughter. As if the higher authorities read his mind, a voice in the sky appeared on the scene and told the king that this girl was indeed his daughter in all righteousness. The first issue was now resolved. The king could take the girl home and raise her as his daughter. She proved to be a perfect fit in his family. The king’s name was Janaka, and he was one in a long line of pious rulers named Janaka. This Janaka was especially devoted to dharma and was famous throughout the world for being above the influence of the senses. Though he was married and ruling over a kingdom, he was not attached to any of his duties. He met every obligation as a matter of protocol, not caring for the result one way or the other. These are the godly principles, which are even lauded by Lord Krishna    in the Bhagavad-gita. “Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty; for by working without attachment, one attains the Supreme.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 3.19) The daughter was named Sita because she came out of the ground, not having biological parents. When it was time for Sita’s marriage, Janaka was torn inside. He felt like a wealthy man about to become poor, for the goddess of fortune was going to leave his family. Sita was really Lakshmi Devi appearing on earth to take part in the pastimes of the Supreme Lord, who had appeared as Lord Rama    in the family of the Raghus. Janaka knew none of this, but he didn’t need to. From her qualities he could tell that Sita was special. In addition to the trepidation over losing Sita, Janaka faced another problem. He didn’t know who Sita’s parents were, nor did he know the astrological signs from the time of her birth. Therefore how could he find a suitable match for her? Yet if he kept Sita unmarried, he would invite scorn from his family members and also the community that he vowed to protect. If the king could keep his daughter unmarried, why shouldn’t everyone else then follow the same example? After consulting with his priests and family members, the king arrived on a compromise. He had been given an amazing bow belonging to Lord Shiva, the worshipable figure of the Vedic tradition charged with destroying the creation at the appropriate time. The bow was so heavy that it seemed impossible to lift. Janaka vowed that if any prince from around the world could lift it, they would get Sita’s hand in marriage. Through their strength they would prove to be the fittest man capable of protecting his beloved daughter. The announcement of the king’s vow went out across every country. The news was so happily accepted that royal clans gathered their things and made the trek to Janakpur, Janaka’s city where the contest was being held. In the above referenced verse from the Janaki Mangala, Goswami Tulsidas    says that the procession of the armies was so amazing that it looked like Lord Indra had descended to earth and was marching towards Janakpur. Indra is the king of the heavenly planets, where the residents live longer and more materially enriched lives. Indra is also responsible for fighting against the evil elements of the world. Since the beginning of time the devoted class, the suras, and the non-devoted, the asuras, have clashed. Indra is the most powerful of the demigods   ; hence he is their leader. His royal army resembles no other; therefore the comparison was appropriate. It is also said that the princes arriving were beautiful and chivalrous, or disciplined. Sita was the most beautiful woman in the world, so a beautiful prince would be a fit match. She was also Janaka’s daughter, which meant that her level of piety was extremely high. Though Sita wasn’t formally educated, her knowledge of the Vedas was outstanding, as she observed the Vedic rites and rituals conducted in her father’s kingdom while growing up. Simply through listening to the words of her parents and the brahmanas, she acquired high knowledge. The princes coming to Janakpur were also of a good age, family and ancestry. Lord Shiva’s bow would not be easy to lift. It would take more than just brute strength to raise it. One had to have a good family background, where they were trained properly in the military arts. The bow belonged to Lord Shiva   , and it was obviously heavy for a reason. A prince had to be of the proper age to try to lift the bow. Men who are of the proper age for marriage typically have the highest levels of strength they will have in their life. Even in sports, it is seen that there is a typical age when the athlete’s performance is at its peak. If they are too young, they may have a lot of energy but not enough strength or dexterity. If the athlete is too old, they may no longer have the strength and coordination to compete at the highest levels. These princes arriving were of just the right age. The princes were of a good family and came from good ancestry. It would seem like these things shouldn’t have mattered, but to marry the daughter of King Janaka, one had to come from a good dynasty, for the two families would be united through the marriage. The description of the armies arriving serves as a reminder that the most respected royal families came to Janakpur for the contest, showing how much Janaka was favored and how coveted Sita’s hand in marriage was. A prince coming from a good dynasty and having a link to many famous kings from the past obviously will not want to marry just any princess. The girl should come from a family equally as respected, if not more so. The scene in Janakpur that fateful day was legendary. While many of the most respected and capable princes came to try to win Sita’s hand in marriage, just as the living entities have a particular dharma, so do the Lord’s closest associates. Sita is God’s eternal consort, which means that she can never be with any man except the Supreme Lord. During this time on earth, the external events were manipulated in just the right way so as to allow the goddess of fortune’s husband to arrive on the scene and win her hand in marriage. Lord Rama, though not part of the giant procession of armies, would arrive nonetheless, coming without any fanfare or pomp. He would come as the guest of the sage Vishvamitra, who was travelling the forests at the time, with Rama and His younger brother Lakshmana    acting as his protection. Though they didn’t come to Janakpur for the purpose of participating in the contest, Janaka was so invigorated by the vision of the two brothers that he allowed Rama to make an attempt anyway. At Vishvamitra’s request, Rama would step up, raise Shiva’s bow, and be garlanded by Sita as the victor. His family, ancestry, beauty and chivalry were unmatched, for He is the Supreme Lord that never ceases to be the most fortunate living entity in the world. He proved His worthiness to have Sita as a wife on that day. All the famous kings and princes from around the world were there to witness the history, the marriage of Sita and Rama, which is still talked about, honored, worshiped, and remembered to this day. In Closing: From countries spread out far and wide, Massive armies to Janakpur arrived. Having tremendous chivalry and beauty, And belonging to most famous ancestry, The princes for king’s daughter hand did vie, For an elegant princess each was qualified. Like Indra leading the demigods scene did appear, But only man to wed Sita, the remover of fear. Dasharatha's son proved His worth by bow's lift, That treasurable moment the sincere heart's gift.

Priorities

 

 

In life everything is a question of priorities   
  
  

 

Bacterial Lamp Can Eat Your Sewage and Light Up Your House

By Rebecca Boyle

Bioluminescent Lamp The Bio-light uses bioluminescent bacteria that are fed by a home's methane digester. It can also use fluorescent proteins that emit light. Philips

As the world — and its landfills and water treatment plants — get more and more crowded, future houses will have to cut down on their waste. Or they could just repurpose it. For instance, they could use household sludge to feed bioluminescent bacteria to light up a room. It’s so simple! Really!

This bioluminescent lamp is part of Philips’ Microbial Home concept, a self-sufficient closed-loop home that wastes not and wants not. The Bio-lamp is fueled by a methane digester, which itself forms the centerpiece of the kitchen (yes) and breaks down waste into a lovely sludge.

Individual bioluminescent bacteria would be inserted into their own interesting-looking blown glass cells, forming a living lamp. Silicon tubes would connect the bacteria to the life-sustaining sludge at the lamp’s base.

Bioluminescent organisms, including fireflies and some small marine organisms, produce an enzyme called luciferase, which catalyzes a chemical reaction between oxygen and a pigment called luciferin. The result is a low-intensity, ambient light, so it would work pretty well in a modernist light fixture. If the idea of waste-eating luminous bacteria does not sound appealing, the Bio-lamp could also work with a fluorescent protein filling.

“Energy-saving light bulbs will only take us so far,” explains Clive van Heerden, senior director of Design-led Innovation, on Philips Design’swebsite. “We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, to rethink how homes consume energy, and how entire communities can pool resources.”

Would you hang this lamp in your house?

[Discovery News]

TATA NANO GOLDEN

3-D Printer Used to Make Bone-Like Material

Researchers have used a 3-D printer to create a bone-like material and structure that can be used in orthopedic procedures, dental work and to deliver medicine for treating osteoporosis. (Credit: Image courtesy of Washington State University)

Science Daily  — It looks like bone. It feels like bone. For the most part, it acts like bone.

Washington State University researchers have used a 3-D printer to create a bone-like material and structure that can be used in orthopedic procedures, dental work and to deliver medicine for treating osteoporosis. Paired with actual bone, it acts as a scaffold for new bone to grow on and ultimately dissolves with no apparent ill effects.And it came off an inkjet printer.

The authors report on successful in vitro tests in the journal Dental Materials and say they're already seeing promising results with in vivo tests on rats and rabbits. It's possible that doctors will be able to custom order replacement bone tissue in a few years, said Susmita Bose, co-author and professor in WSU's School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

"If a doctor has a CT scan of a defect, we can convert it to a CAD file and make the scaffold according to the defect," Bose said.

The material grows out of a four-year interdisciplinary effort involving chemistry, materials science, biology and manufacturing. A main finding of the paper is that the addition of silicon and zinc more than doubled the strength of the main material, calcium phosphate.

The researchers -- who include mechanical and materials engineering Professor Amit Bandyopadhyay, doctoral student Gary Fielding and research assistant Solaiman Tarafder -- also spent a year optimizing a commercially available ProMetal 3-D printer designed to make metal objects.

The printer works by having an inkjet spray a plastic binder over a bed of powder in layers of 20 microns, about half the width of a human hair. Following a computer's directions, it creates a channeled cylinder the size of a pencil eraser.

After just a week in a medium with immature human bone cells, the scaffold was supporting a network of new bone cells.

The research was funded with a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Making a Light-Harvesting Antenna from Scratch: Biomimetic Antenna for Gathering Sunlight May One Day Transform Solar-Powered Devices

The photosystem in green bacteria consists of a light-harvesting antenna called a chlorosome and a reaction center. The energy of the light the pigments absorb is transferred to the reaction center (red) through a protein-pigment antenna complex called the baseplate (gold). The antenna (green) is made of rod-shaped aggregates of pigment molecules. (Credit: Blankenship/WUSTL)

Science Daily — Sometimes when people talk about solar energy, they tacitly assume that we're stuck with some version of the silicon solar cell and its technical and cost limitations. Not so.

Silicon solar cells have almost nothing to do with the biological photosystems in tree leaves and pond scum that use light energy to push electrons across a membrane -- and ultimately create sugars and other organic molecules.The invention of the solar cell, in 1941, was inspired by a newfound understanding of semiconductors, materials that can use light energy to create mobile electrons -- and ultimately an electrical current.

At the time, nobody understood these complex assemblages of proteins and pigments well enough to exploit their secrets for the design of solar cells.

But things have changed.

At Washington University in St. Louis's Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) scientists are exploring native biological photosystems, building hybrids that combine natural and synthetic parts, and building fully synthetic analogs of natural systems.

One team has just succeeded in making a crucial photosystem component -- a light-harvesting antenna -- from scratch. The new antenna is modeled on the chlorosome found in green bacteria.

Chlorosomes are giant assemblies of pigment molecules. Perhaps Nature's most spectacular light-harvesting antennae, they allow green bacteria to photosynthesize even in the dim light in ocean deeps.

Dewey Holten, PhD, professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, ard collaborator Christine Kirmaier, PhD, research professor of chemistry are part of a team that is trying to make synthetic chlorosomes. Holten and Kirmaier use ultra-fast laser spectroscopy and other analytic techniques to follow the rapid-fire energy transfers in photosynthesis.

His team's latest results were described in a recent issue ofNew Journal of Chemistry.

Chlorosomes

Biological systems that capture the energy in sunlight and convert it to the energy of chemical bonds come in many varieties, but they all have two basic parts: the light harvesting complexes, or antennae, and the reaction center complexes. The antennae consist of many pigment molecules that absorb photons and pass the excitation energy to the reaction centers.

In the reaction centers, the excitation energy sets off a chain of reactions that create ATP, a molecule often called the energy currency of the cell because the energy stored ATP powers most cellular work. Cellular organelles selectively break those bonds in ATP molecules when they need an energy hit for cellular work.

Green bacteria, which live in the lower layers of ponds, lakes and marine environments, and in the surface layers of sediments, have evolved large and efficient light-harvesting antennae very different from those found in plants bathing in sunlight on Earth's surface.

The antennae consist of highly organized three-dimensional systems of as many as 250,000 pigment molecules that absorb light and funnel the light energy through a pigment/protein complex called a baseplate to a reaction center, where it triggers chemical reactions that ultimately produce ATP.

In plants and algae (and in the baseplate in the green bacteria) photo pigments are bound to protein scaffolds, which space and orient the pigment molecules in such a way that energy is efficiently transferred between them.

But chlorosomes don't have a protein scaffold. Instead the pigment molecules self -assemble into a structure that supports the rapid migration of excitation energy.

This is intriguing because it suggests chlorosome mimics might be easier to incorporate in the design of solar devices than biomimetics that are made of proteins as well as pigments.

Synthetic pigments

The goal of the work described in the latest journal article was to see whether synthesized pigment molecules could be induced to self-assemble. The process by which the pigments align and bond is not well understood.

"The structure of the pigment assemblies in chlorosomes is the subject of intense debate," Holten says, "and there are several competing models for it."

Given this uncertainty, the scientists wanted to study many variations of a pigment molecule to see what favored and what blocked assembly.

A chemist wishing to design pigments that mimic those found in photosynthetic organisms first builds one of three molecular frameworks. All three are macrocycles, or giant rings: porphyrin, chlorin and bacteriochlorin.

"One of the members of our team, Jon Lindsey can synthesize analogs of all three pigment types from scratch," says Holten. (Lindsey, PhD, is Glaxo Professor of Chemistry at North Carolina State University.)

In the past, chemists making photo pigments have usually started with porphyrins, which are the easiest of the three types of macrocycles to synthesize. But Lindsey also has developed the means to synthesize chlorins, the basis for the pigments found in the chlorosomes of green bacteria. The chlorins push the absorption to the red end of the visible spectrum, an area of the spectrum scientists would like to be able to harvest for energy.

Key to pigment self-assembly are the metal atoms and hydroxyl (OH) and carbonyl (C=O) groups in the pigment molecules (the groups shown in color in the above illustration).

Doctoral student Olga Mass and coworkers in Lindsey's lab synthesized 30 different chlorins, systematically adding or removing chemical groups thought to be important for self-assembly but also attaching peripheral chemical groups that take up space and might make it harder for the molecules to stack or that shift around the distributions of electrons so that the molecules might stack more easily.

Testing for aggregation

The powdered pigments were carefully packaged and shipped by Fed Ex (because the Post Office won't ship chemicals) to Holten's lab at WUSTL and to David Bocian's lab at the University of California at Riverside.

Scientists in both labs made up green-tinctured solutions of each of the 30 molecules in small test tubes and then poked and prodded the solutions by means of analytical techniques to see whether the pigment had aggregated and, if so, how much had formed the assemblies. Holten's lab studied their absorption of light and their fluorescence (which indicated the presence of monomers, since assemblies don't normally fluoresce) and Bocian's lab studied their vibrational properties, which are determined by the network of bonds in the molecule or pigment aggregate as a whole.

In one crucial test Joseph Springer, a PhD student in Holten's lab, compared the absorption spectrum of a pigment in a polar solvent that would prevent it from self-assembling to the spectrum of the pigment in a nonpolar solvent that would allow the molecules to interact with one another and form assemblies.

"You can see them aggregate," Springer says. "A pigment that is totally in solution is clear, but colored a brilliant green. When it aggregates, the solution becomes a duller green and you can see tiny flecks in the liquid."

The absorption spectra indicated that some pigments formed extensive assemblies and that the steric and electronic properties of the molecules predicted the degree to which they would assemble.

Up next

Although this project focused on self-assembly, the PARC scientists have already taken the next step toward a practical solar device. "With Pratim Biswas, PhD, the Lucy and Stanley Lopata Professor and chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, we've since demonstrated that we can get the pigments to self-assemble on surfaces, which is the next step in using them to design solar devices," says Holten.

"We're not trying to make a more efficient solar cell in the next six months," Holten cautions. "Our goal instead is to develop fundamental understanding so that we can enable the next generation of more efficient solar powered devices."

Biomimicry hasn't always worked. Engineers often point out early flying machines that attempted to mimic birds didn't work and that flying machines stayed aloft only when nventors abandoned biological models and came up with their own designs.

But there is nothing predestined or inevitable about this. As biological knowledge has exploded in the past 50 years, mimicking nature has become a smarter strategy. Biomimetic or biohybrid designs already have solved significant engineering problems in other areas and promise to greatly improve the design of solar powered devices as well.

After all, Nature has had billions of years to experiment with ways to harness the energy in sunlight for useful work.

‘Everyday’ chemical may cause cancer

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Zinc oxide can be found in many consumer products, including creams and ointments. Image: Dabblelicious, Flickr CC-licensed A study led by a group of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) researchers has found that a chemical commonly used in consumer products can potentially cause cancer. The chemical, zinc oxide, is used to absorb harmful ultra violet light. But when it is turned into nano-sized particles, they are able to enter human cells and may damage the user's DNA. This in turn activates a protein called p53, whose duty is to prevent damaged cells from multiplying and becoming cancerous. However, cells that lack p53 or do not produce enough functional p53 may instead develop into cancerous cells when they come into contact with zinc oxide nanoparticles. The study is led by Assistant Professor Joachim Loo, 34, and Assistant Professor Ng Kee Woei, 37, from NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering. They worked with Assistant Professor David Leong, 38, from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, a joint senior author of this research paper. The findings suggest that companies may need to reassess the health impact of nano-sized zinc xxide particles used in everyday products. More studies are also needed on the use and concentration levels of nanomaterials in consumer products, how often a consumer uses them and in what quantities. “Currently there is a lack of information about the risks of the nanomaterials used in consumer products and what they can pose to the human body. This study points to the need for further research in this area and we hope to work with the relevant authorities on this,” said Asst Prof Loo. The groundbreaking research findings were published in this month’s edition of Biomaterials, one of the world’s top journals in the field of biomaterials research. The breakthrough also validated efforts by Asst Prof Loo and Asst Prof Ng to pioneer a research group in the emerging field of nanotoxicology, which is still very much in its infancy throughout the world. Nanotoxicology studies materials to see if they are toxic or harmful when they are turned into nano-sized particles. This is because nanomaterials usually have very different properties when compared to when the materials are of a larger size. Asst Prof Ng said the team will carry out further research as the DNA damage brought about by nano-sized zinc oxide particles is currently a result of an unknown mechanism. But what is clear is that besides causing DNA damage, nanoparticles can also cause other harmful effects when used in high doses. “From our studies, we found that nanoparticles can also increase stress levels in cells, cause inflammation or simply kill cells,” said Asst Prof Ng who added that apart from finding out the cellular mechanism, more focused research is also expected to ascertain the physiological effects and damage that nano-sized zinc oxide particles can cause. Asst Prof Loo pointed out that besides enhancing the understanding of the potential risks of using nanomaterials, advancements in nanotoxicology research will also help scientists put nanomaterials to good use in biomedical applications. For example, although killing cells in our bodies is typically undesirable, this becomes a positive outcome if it can be effectively directed towards cancer cells in the body. At the same time, the team is also studying how nanomaterials can be “re-designed” to pose a lesser risk to humans, yet still possess the desired beneficial properties. This research discovery is one of the latest in a series of biomedical breakthroughs by NTU in healthcare. Future healthcare is one of NTU’s Five Peaks of Excellence with which the university aims to make its mark globally under the NTU 2015 five-year strategic plan. The other four peaks are sustainable earth, new media, the best of the East and West, and innovation. Moving forward, the team hopes to work with existing and new collaborative partners, within and outside of Singapore, to orchestrate a more concerted effort towards the advancement of the fledgling field of nanotoxicology here, with the aim of helping regulatory bodies in Singapore formulate guidelines to protect consumer interests. The research team would also like to work with the European Union to uncover the risks involving nanomaterials and how these materials should be regulated before they are made commercially available. Asst Prof Joachim Loo, who received his Bachelor and Doctorate degrees from NTU, was the only Singaporean representative in a recent nanotechnology workshop held in Europe. At the workshop, it was agreed that research collaborations in nanotoxicology between EU and South-east Asia should be increased. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

The Pill linked to prostate cancer

MARION LOPEZ, SCIENCENETWORK WA

"Pills in use today can potentially act as EDCs as they frequently contain high doses of ethinyloestradiol, which is excreted in urine without degradation.” Image: anqa, Flickr CC-licensed An international study published in BMJ Open has recently suggested the existence of a causal link between the use of the contraceptive pill and the increase incidence of prostate cancer, due to men’s abnormal exposure to low levels of oestrogen in the environment. Prostate cancer is the most common male malignancy in the Western world and its risk factors other than age, ethnicity and family history still remain ill-defined. Although the study is ecological (i.e. a study where the unit of analysis is a population rather than an individual) and cannot ascertain the results, researchers have put forward the hypothesis that oestrogen by-products could be passed via urine into the environment in general or drinking water, thus exposing the population at large. “The last two decades have witnessed growing scientific concerns and public debate over the potential adverse effects that may result from exposure to a group of chemicals [found in the contraceptive pill] that have the potential to alter the normal functioning of the endocrine system in wildlife and humans,” say researchers. “These chemicals are typically known as endocrine disturbing compounds (EDCs). “Temporal increases in the incidence of certain cancers (breast, endometrial, thyroid, testis and prostate) in hormonally sensitive tissues in many parts of the industrialised world are often cited as evidence that widespread exposure of the general population to EDCs has had adverse impacts on human health. “Pills in use today can potentially act as EDCs as they frequently contain high doses of ethinyloestradiol, which is excreted in urine without degradation.” CEO of the Prostate Cancer Foundation Dr Anthony Lowe believes the study is interesting but needs to be viewed with caution. “It is well known that prostate cancer is strongly associated with male hormones and a number of recent studies have suggested a possible association with female hormones. “However, what the study shows is that countries where there is a high use of oral contraceptives have a high incidence of prostate cancer. It does not demonstrate a causal link. “It may be that countries where there is a high use of oral contraceptives share other factors e.g. western diet and lifestyle, that are a risk factor for prostate cancer. “More work and a different type of study are needed to demonstrate the link.” Although the causes remain unclear, awareness and advocacy of the issue among the general public are strong. Nearly 141,000 Australians have registered for Movember and raised about $17,500,000 for research this year. Leader of the Prostate Cancer Support Group Pam Sandoe is pleased with people’s enthusiasm. “It’s a great fund raiser and we are more than delighted with this great men's health initiative.” Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.