In 1947, three physicists and electrical engineers named William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, employed at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, crudely fashioned a clunky device using paper clips and razor blades, which could control the flow of electric current between two pieces of gold by adjusting the current in a third piece of germanium. This invention, which is now known as a transistor, constituted the world’s first purely electronic switch and is now considered the basic building block for the construction of all machines that process data using electricity. For their pioneering work, Shockley (whose name, by the…

What is metabolomics? Metabolomics is a relatively new member to the ‘-omics’ family of systems biology technologies (Bino et.al. 2004). The term ‘metabolome’ was coined in 1998 and was used to describe the metabolite complement of living tissues (Oliver et.al. 1998). Despite its relative youth (in comparison to genomics and proteomics), metabolomics as a field of study is now firmly established as a functional genetics approach to understanding the molecular complexity of life (Wagner et.al. 2003). Today, it even has a journal with its namesake, Metabolomics, dedicated to scribing its tribulations and advances (available at www.springeronline.com). This paper will briefly…

Introduction: Influenza remains an important disease in humans and animals. In contrast to measles, smallpox and poliomyelitis, influenza is caused by viruses that undergo continuous antigenic change and that possess an animal reservoir. Thus, new epidemics and pandemics are likely to occur in the future, and eradication of the disease will be difficult to achieve. Although it is not clear whether a new pandemic is imminent, it would be prudent to take into account the lessons we have learned from studying different human and animal influenza viruses. Influenza has long been with us; indeed, the name itself refers to the…

As a recent Canadian ex-patriate, currently living in the Mysterious East, I find it interesting to note some of the technical differences between the two societies. Architecture, infrastructure, and day-to-day technology often differ in subtle ways. You may or may not be aware that China, as a developing country, has no Three-Phase electric power. Which is what, exactly? At the conclusion of the Current Wars, at the turn of the 20th century, alternating current became the standard. What this means is that instead of a continuous supply of one-way current coming our way from the electric plant, what we have…

“Ay, thou art for the grave; thy glances shine Too brightly to shine long; another Spring Shall deck her for men’s eyes—but not for thine— Sealed in a sleep which knows no wakening. The fields for thee have no medicinal leaf, And the vexed ore no mineral of power; And they who love thee wait in anxious grief Till the slow plague shall bring the final hour…” From Consumption by William Cullen Bryant – – – Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease of global concern, and one of the oldest enemies of the human race: the records of its presence date…

World’s favourite drug Well known for its effects on reducing tiredness and improving alertness, caffeine has emerged in the 21st century as the most popular psychoactive drug in the world. In this day and age, caffeine can be found in a variety of food products including coffee, tea, soft drinks, energy drinks, chocolates and others. Furthermore, since the isolation of caffeine from coffee beans in 1820, the therapeutic use of caffeine both as an additive to other drugs or as a stand alone tablet has gained attractiveness in various pharmacological applications. In North America, the most common source of caffeine…

Over the past fifty years, anomalies have occurred within Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Some of these have caught the attention of scientists and environmentalists only, while others have produced media frenzies. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring identified the risks of bioaccumulation to egg-laying animals, especially raptors (1962); habitat destruction led to the near extinction of the snail darter (1977) and the Northern Spotted Owl (1980s); the fungal threat to the existence of the Cavendish banana (1992) brought attention to the Gros Michel banana crisis of the 1950s, both related to monocultural farming practices; a marked increase in malformed amphibians highlighted…