Monthly Archives: February 2011

Elan was recently asked: Your workers or your private jet..guess what they chose?

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A quick note: This month has seen me suffer a lot through the loss of my favorite feline Squeaky. This was predated with our failed efforts at using veterinary medicine to save him. I will be writing about this and my plans in detail. In addition, new deadlines and an extremely tight schedule are making posting quite tough!

Elan: This name means eagerness and earnest..as it turns out, the Irish pharmaceutical company chose to turn it into irony...

Companies like Elan are a staunch reminder that nothing has changed. Business, is as usual - an old boy's club. All everyone did was hold their breath for a little while and now, we are back to business. It doesn't matter that Boston Scientific just needs to pay $196mn. for the Guidant mess. Yeah, don't hold your breath with the lawsuit the Justice Department has filed.

It also doesn't matter that J&J's quality problems haven't found a bottom yet.

And yet, Elan comes out swinging as the worst. As it turns out, not only did they fire a bunch of their R&D folks, but flew on their private jet to let investors know how they are "saving money" and "on track" for 2011 growth..!

The result?

One irked investor claimed that while this was troublesome, Elan was a great company with a great molecule. Bravo!

Of course I could go on and on about the need for ethics and shareholder activism, but I thought I would just stop here, and rush back to dinner giving you some pause for thought..

"Do you really think pharmaceutical and medical device companies are going in the right direction?"

No, this is not about innovation that the President preaches, as if all that is holding innovation back is people's desire to jump out and start sketching on the white board...

Can companies survive, let alone thrive with such poor ethics and morals?

Until next month...

Thermostable endoglucanases in the liquefaction of hydrothermally pretreated wheat straw

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Background:
Thermostable enzymes have several benefits in lignocellulose processing. In particular, they potentially allow the use of increased substrate concentrations (because the substrate viscosity decreases as the temperature increases), resulting in improved product yields and reduced capital and processing costs. A short pre-hydrolysis step at an elevated temperature using thermostable enzymes aimed at rapid liquefaction of the feedstock is seen as an attractive way to overcome the technical problems (such as poor mixing and mass transfer properties) connected with high initial solid loadings in the lignocellulose to ethanol process.
Results:
The capability of novel thermostable enzymes to reduce the viscosity of high-solid biomass suspensions using a real-time viscometric measurement method was investigated. Heterologously expressed enzymes from various thermophilic organisms were compared for their ability to liquefy the lignocellulosic substrate, hydrothermally pretreated wheat straw. Once the best enzymes were identified, the optimal temperatures for these enzymes to decrease substrate viscosity were compared. The combined hydrolytic properties of the thermostable preparations were tested in hydrolysis experiments. The studied mixtures were primarily designed to have good liquefaction potential, and therefore contained an enhanced proportion of the key liquefying enzyme, EGII/Cel5A.
Conclusions:
Endoglucanases were shown to have a superior ability to rapidly reduce the viscosity of the 15% (w/w; dry matter) hydrothermally pretreated wheat straw. Based on temperature profiling studies, Thermoascus aurantiacus EGII/Cel5A was the most promising enzyme for biomass liquefaction. Even though they were not optimized for saccharification, many of the thermostable enzyme mixtures had superior hydrolytic properties compared with the commercial reference enzymes at 55 degreesC.

The downfall of science and the rise of intellectual tyranny

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The very reputation of so-called "science" has been irreparably damaged by the invocation of the term "science" by GMO lackeys, pesticide pushers, mercury advocates and fluoride poisoners who all claim to have science on their side. It seems that every toxin, contamination and chemical disaster that now infects our planet has been evangelized in the name of "science."

Where "science" used to be highly regarded in the 1950's, today the term is largely exploited by pharmaceutical companies, biotech giants and chemical companies to push their own for-profit agendas. Actual science has little to do with the schemes now being pushed under the veil of science.

To make matters even worse for the sciences, many so-called "science bloggers" have been revealed to have financial ties to the very same companies whose profits are shored up by their activities (http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/08/the-new-york-times-exposes-scienceblogs.html).

Rather than defending any sort of scientific truth, science bloggers have become the internet whores of Big Pharma, Monsanto, pesticide manufacturers, chemical companies and toxic mercury factories. There's hardly a dangerous chemical in widespread use today that the science bloggers haven't venomously defended as safe and effective. Many are just blatantly paid off by corporate entities to run around the internet pushing GMOs, chemicals and vaccines. Read more...

Immunice for Immune Support

Interview with a Nutritarian: Mark

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Emily Boller

Mark was experiencing the same physical symptoms and emotional fears that befall many middle-aged males; that of living in fear of an impending heart attack and leaving their children prematurely with no father to help raise them. Not only did Mark take control of his health destiny and get his health back, but became one of Dr. Fuhrman’s first Nutritional Education Trainers (NETs) to help others do the same! Welcome to Disease Proof, Mark.

What was your life like before discovering Dr. Fuhrman’s nutritarian eating-style?

I was overweight, but in denial. Being 6'3" and carrying around an extra 65 lbs. wasn't as noticeable on me as it would have been on someone that was a bit shorter. I was always playing sports when I was young, so it was hard for me to accept that I was overweight. I was on four prescription medications for asthma and a perpetual runny nose. I always over ate and consumed a deadly diet. Read more...

AyurGold for Healthy Blood

Sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and type II diabetes

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NewsTarget.com

Sugar and refined carbohydrates are undeniably linked to diabetes. Researchers around the world have come to the conclusion that the consumption of refined sugar is detrimental to the health of people without diabetes and disastrous for those with it. Furthermore, excess sugar in the blood can cause the onset of type 2 diabetes. First, however, what exactly is diabetes?
According to Bruce Fife ND, "Diabetes is all about sugar -- the sugar in our bodies known as blood sugar or blood glucose. Every cell in our bodies must have a constant source of glucose in order to fuel metabolism. Our cells use glucose to power processes such as growth and repair. When we eat a meal the digestive system converts much of our food into glucose, which is released into the bloodstream. The hormone insulin, which is secreted by the pancreas gland, moves glucose from the blood and funnels it into the cells so it can be used as fuel. If the cells are unable to get adequate amounts of glucose, they can literally starve to death. As they do, tissues and organs begin to degenerate. This is what happens in diabetes."

Ayurtox for Body Detoxification

For One Man, It’s All About Prevention and Wellness

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(HealthDay News) -- Adam Dougherty is laying the groundwork for a long and healthy life.

Dougherty, 25, is a health policy analyst living in Los Angeles with a master's degree in public health from the University of Southern California. He's applying the lessons learned for his career to his own health. He's in pretty good shape, 5-feet-9 and 160 pounds, and he wants to maintain his shape and his health.

"Coming from my public-health background, I'm a really strong believer in prevention and wellness," Dougherty said.

That means keeping both the mind and the body healthy. "I really think physical health and mental health are important counterbalances for the stresses we endure during the week," he explained.

Part of Dougherty's wellness routine includes taking some time each day to do something that relaxes him. "I play guitar," he said. "That's a good way to decompress and detach and calm my nerves."

Dougherty also eats a balanced diet, eating complete meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner. But he's aware of total calorie intake, adding that a person needs to burn as many calories as they eat in a day if they hope to maintain their weight, and burn more and eat less for weight loss. Read more...

AyurGold for Healthy Blood

"Physica Sacra," Johannes Jacob Scheuchzer, 1735

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The incredible images above are drawn from a book which has long intrigued me, Johannes Jacob Scheuchzer's 4-volume early 18th Century extravaganza of art, science and mysticism entitled Physica Sacra.

As described by Christie's Auction House:

'In Scheuchzer's gigantic work, Physica Sacra, the Baroque attains, philosophically as well as artistically, its high point and its conclusion' (Faber du Faur, German Baroque Literature, p. 472). Scheuchzer, a doctor and natural scientist from Zurich, planned the Physica sacra as an explanation of and a commentary on the Bible on natural-scientific grounds. He himself oversaw the illustrations which were largely based on his own natural history cabinet or on other famous European cabinets of rare specimens...

This book seems like a fitting final response to yesterday's very stimulating "Art and the Curiosity Cabinet" Conference at Seton Hall University, where a lot was said about these ways in which early cabinets (and pre-modern inquiry) resided at the borders of art and science, fact and mysticism. I don't think I have ever seen a more elegant expression of these ideas than the content and illustrations of this book, which blends bible commentary with natural history in a bombastic interest in all of the known world of its time, spanning Memento Mori to the Thesaurus of Snowflakes to biblical miracles, all given equal treatment and weight.

Click on images to see much larger and more detailed images; worth your while, I promise! You can see 737 of the images from the book (!!!) (from which the above 7 are drawn) in Greyherbert's amazing Flickr stream by clicking here.

Inspired by this recent post on the Ptak Science Books blog discussing the book; Text from Christie's Auction house description of the book when recently auctioning off a complete 4-volume set.

Images above, top to bottom:

  1. Homo ex Humo ('man from the ground', or 'dust')
  2. Memento Mori
  3. Ventriculi
  4. Heart
  5. Columna Ignis
  6. Solea cum Squamae
  7. Thesarus of Snowflakes