Dorothy Hodgkin

“ I was captured for life by chemistry and by crystals” - Dorothy Hodgkin (The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations)

I think it is important that we honour the female scientists who played a role in paving the way for women in the science and math fields of today.  There are hundreds of amazing women who have been forgotten about, and Dorothy Hodgkin is one of them.  Hodgkin was not only a scientist, but an activist and pioneer in the field of X-ray crystallography.

Hodgkin’s parents were prominent figures in the world of archaeology and she grew up visiting them in various destinations including Sudan and Cairo. From the ages eleven to eighteen, Hodgkin was one of only two girls who were allowed to join the boys for chemistry class -- by the time she graduated from that school, she knew she wanted to study chemistry (Nobel).  

Hodgkin proceeded to excel in science and she was one of the pioneers of x-ray crystallography after deciding to study the topic for her fourth year research assignment at Somerville College (Chemistry Heritage Foundation).  After graduating from Somerville, Hodgkin moved on to study at Cambridge with a physicist named John Bernal (Encyclopedia Britannica). She remained at Cambridge and completed her doctoral studies but eventually returned to Somerville after being offered a research fellowship. Hodgkin remained at Somerville and taught for nearly forty years before she retired (Nobel).  

During the time she spent teaching, Hodgkin made major discoveries including vitamin B12 and the structures of insulin and penicillin.  Hodgkin received many honours including being the second woman to be elected to join the Royal Society, and being the third women to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry (Nobel).

In addition to being an inspirational scientist, Hodgkin was a humanitarian.  Hodgkin took a special interest in bringing together scientists from around the world.  Eventually Hodgkin became president of the Pugwash Conferences on Sciences and World Affairs, an organisation whose main goal was to promote the peaceful use of science (Chemistry Heritage Foundation).

I think that women like Dorothy Hodgkin are the kinds of people we should be looking up to. When Hodgkin was studying and working it was still unusual to see women working in science and it was women like her that paved the way for us. There were probably many other women who would have liked to have studied science but didn’t have the means or the courage to break out of the status-quo. Thanks to women like Hodgkin, women are able to work in any field they want to without penalty.

Do you think you would have the courage to be one of the first men or women to work in a field that was still dominated by the opposite sex?

Can Carbon Monoxide Prevent Brain Damage?

We’ve all heard of oxygen being used to help patients in hospitals, but have you ever heard of carbon monoxide being used for treatment?  Traditionally, we have been taught that carbon monoxide is very dangerous… it is.  We are all wary of carbon monoxide poisoning, most of us probably have carbon monoxide detectors installed in our homes as a safety precaution.  

According recent research, carbon monoxide in very low and controlled doses may actually be extremely beneficial to people who have suffered subarachnoid hemorrhages (also called hemorrhagic strokes).  A subarachnoid hemorrhage is basically bleeding between the brain and the tissues that cover it. The prognosis is not good for someone who has suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, with only a fifty percent chance of surviving the first twelve months following the stroke; of those who do survive, forty percent experience cognitive damage that may never go away (“Carbon Monoxide”).

Researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have reason to believe that by administering very small amounts of carbon monoxide to patients who have suffered this kind of brain injury, they are actually able to prevent permanent brain damage. The body uses an enzyme that does essentially the same thing as the carbon monoxide, the enzyme is called oxygenase-1, it actually generates carbon monoxide. The way the carbon monoxide helps is by speeding up the elimination of a buildup of heme in the brain. Heme is a toxic component of the hemoglobin, and once a red blood cell has been damaged the heme can escape and come in direct contact with the brain cells.  The heme causes the surrounding tissues to die as it is so toxic (“Carbon Monoxide”).

I think it’s amazing that something that we all think of as being so dangerous could actually be effective in treating serious health problems like strokes. We use gas in medicine for lots of other purposes, but usually it’s gases that we consider to be “healthy” like oxygen. If this method of treatment is introduced to hospitals around the world it would have the power to change people’s lives. Suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage would no longer mean severe cognitive impairment, eventually patients might be able to walk away unscathed.

Have you ever heard of carbon monoxide being used in medicine? What other gases are used in medicine and what are their applications?

New Chemotherapy Drug Could Revolutionize Cancer Treatment

One of the major problems with various drugs is the fact that they are highly insoluble, this means that we have to add detergents to them so that our body will be able to make use of them. Chemotherapy drugs have a particularly low solubility and a significant number of the side effects of chemotherapy are actually caused by the added detergents.  Over 40% of the new chemicals we discover that could be used to treat different illnesses are almost completely insoluble in water (Savjani).

Starpharma is in the first round of clinical trials for a modified version of a popular chemotherapy drug (“DEPTM”).  The name of the original drug is “Docetaxel,” Starpharma is currently working on DEPTM Docetaxel.  This version is highly soluble in water compared to most other drugs on the market, so detergents would not need to be added (Beveridge).  If the improved solubility of the drug isn’t enough, so far testing has shown that the drug is significantly more effective at treating tumours, it accumulates in the tumour and remains active better than the alternatives (Beveridge, “DEPTM”).

If this drug is successful in the rest of its trials it could be revolutionary in cancer treatment. The drug has been proven to work on breast, prostate, lung, and ovarian tumors (“DEPTM”); collectively those cancers are responsible for the death of 31 500 Canadians each year (CDN Cancer Society).  If we could knock that number down even by a few percent it would make a huge difference in the lives of thousands who would otherwise have lost their loved ones.

A link to the article can be found here.

Have you ever heard of drug solubility being an issue? Do you think that this drug could revolutionize cancer treatment?

Hackable Infusion Pumps In Hospitals Around the World... Yikes!

Although hospitals seem like the best place to be if you’re extremely sick, we don’t always realize just how dangerous they can be.  Everyone knows that there is a very fine line between a safe dose and a fatal dose of medicine, what is safe for you can be fatal for someone else.  Even the smallest mistake in a dosage calculation can lead to a patient’s death, and that's without technology interfering.

It was discovered recently that Hospira infusion pumps can be hacked remotely, the hacker would be able remotely bump up dosage limits which could, in time, lead to fatal overdoses. These pumps have been distributed to hospitals all over the world and are being used on patients right now (Zetter).

Hospira claims that their pumps are superior to others in terms of security and safety, but in comparison with other pumps they are sub-par. To be fair, the pumps in question do have some security measures, but nothing that even a rookie hacker can’t break through.  One expert goes so far as to compare them to an iPhone, saying that the phone is more secure (Zetter).  

I think it is unacceptable that these pumps were even allowed to be on the market, this is a major flaw that should have been caught during quality assurance testing.  Thankfully there have been no widespread hacking incidents regarding the pumps, but it’s only a matter of time.  There are lots of other medical devices that can be hacked, but none so easily as this.

A link to the full article can be found here

Do you think that the flaw in the pump could’ve been caught before they were distributed to hospitals?  How would you react if you or a loved one was hooked up to one of these devices?

The Discovery of a Chemical Reaction has the Potential to Streamline Production of Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceuticals and chemistry go hand in hand. Effective medical treatment usually requires a detailed understanding of chemistry.  Our society relies heavily on the use of medicine, the vast majority of the population has taken at least one pharmaceutical in their lifetime whether it be an over the counter medication like Advil or Tylenol, or a prescription drug.

A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have come across a chemical reaction that is the key to a problem that organic chemists have been trying to solve for years, a link to the article can be found here.

The discovery of a new chemical reaction has enabled us to reduce the cost and time required to manufacture and test pharmaceuticals.  Researchers discovered that phthaloyl peroxide (C8H4O4) is the secret to producing phenols from aromatic hydrocarbons (Uni. of TX at Austin). Phenols play important roles in our metabolism, and are used in topical anesthetics and things like ear-drops (Shrestha). The process that the researchers discovered can also be applied to other challenges in organic chemistry, including the testing of drugs in a more effective and easier way.  We have generally had to use liver microsomes to observe how the body reacts to different drugs, now we can use the products of this chemical reaction to do the same thing but it is more reliable than liver microsomes (Uni. of TX at Austin).

I think the discovery of this reaction is a triumph because it is a major stepping stone in the discovery of new ways to generate chemicals that have traditionally been hard to come by.  It can also provide a more reliable way of testing how the body will metabolize drugs and other substances.  By providing a more reliable way to test drugs, it may also shorten the amount of time it takes to properly test a vaccine.

Do you think that the ability to produce and test pharmaceuticals faster and more effectively is a good thing?

The Adverse Effects of Alcohol on Our Bodies and its Role in Society

A publication was released by Harvard in 2008 that outlined the risks of using and abusing alcohol (link unavailable but article can be found using an Ottawa Public Library account), some of the things it talks about are widely known, but it also touches on the lesser known facts.  The alcohol found in most alcohol beverages is produced through fermentation of carbohydrates, the end product being ethyl alcohol.  Alcohol acts as an irritant to the different tissues in our bodies, the cells that it comes in contact with are constantly trying to repair themselves and this can be the first step towards cancer.  In addition to that, alcohol acts as a solvent that leaves our cells open to other harmful chemicals from things like cigarette smoke ("Alcohol Use and Cancer").

The possible health implications of alcohol use and abuse can be devastating.  Increased risk of liver disease, heart disease, cancer, gastrointestinal issues, and nutritional deficiencies are all linked to alcohol use and abuse, as is brain damage.  Alcohol also causes weight gain because of its caloric value, and hormone imbalances, both of which put one at an increased risk for cancer ("Alcohol Use and Abuse").

On top of all these health concerns, alcohol can also increase the likelihood that you will be involved in an accident or situation that is physically harmful, whether it be an automobile accident, a fall, or a fist fight.  There is also a very distinct correlation between alcohol and violence, approximately 86% of murders occur when the attacker is inebriated ("Alcohol Use and Abuse").  

I think that the general opinion that our society has on alcohol should be changed, not very many people are aware of the acute health implications of alcohol use.  Everyone knows that alcohol has its risks, we are warned about it from a very young age and yet our society still glamourizes alcohol consumption.  Our pop songs often reference binge drinking or chronic drinking and how great it is but they do it in such a way that it is regarded in a positive light; not to mention the fact that there are thousands of young people who look up to the celebrities who are sending these messages.  Alcohol shouldn’t be prohibited but I think that there should be more guidelines concerning the role of alcohol in media, as well as an increase in the level of education that everyone receives about alcohol.

What’s your opinion on the portrayal of alcohol in media and its impact on society?