Neurological Diseases vs. the California Stem Cell Agency: Disease-a-Week Challenge #16
First, a seeming digression from the subject of chronic illness.
In my youth, I worked as an aquarium diver for Marine World Africa USA in Redwood City, California. Five days a week, I would swim down into the tanks full of wildlife, spending time with sharks, dolphins, eels, seals and other creatures of the sea.
The most beautiful tank was a million-gallon tropical fish display, with giant groupers big as cars and tiny cleaner fish that swam in and out of their mouths, and angelfish, surgeonfish, damselfish, wrasses, and more in this man-made reef.
But then one day, the fish began to die. One by one I carried them o...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - September 4, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Neurological Diseases vs. the California Stem Cell Agency: Disease-a-Week Challenge #16
First, a seeming digression from the subject of chronic illness. In my youth, I worked as an aquarium diver for Marine World Africa USA in Redwood City, California. Five days a week, I would swim down into the tanks full of wildlife, spending time with sharks, dolphins, eels, seals and other creatures of the sea. The most beautiful tank was a million-gallon tropical fish display, with giant groupers big as cars and tiny cleaner fish that swam in and out of their mouths, and angelfish, surgeonfish, damselfish, wrasses, and more in this man-made reef. But then one day, the fish began to die. One by one I carried them o...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - September 4, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
VRVK Nutraceuticals, LLC Issues Allergy Alert on Undeclared Crustacean Shellfish and Milk in Two Lots of Ultimate Antioxidant Tablets
VRVK Nutraceuticals, LLC, DBA DR. VENESSA’S FORMULAS of Orlando, Florida, is voluntarily recalling 3998 bottles of ULTIMATE ANTIOXIDANT TABLETS DIETARY SUPPLEMENT, 120 count bottles, with Kelp Atlantic Powder that may contain crustacean shellfish, an undeclared allergen. This product also contains Hesperidin Complex 40%, Pancreatin Powder and Pepsin, three ingredients that contain undeclared milk. (Source: Food and Drug Administration)
Source: Food and Drug Administration - August 31, 2015 Category: Food Science Source Type: news
Extraction and Purification of Phlorotannins from Brown Algae
We describe here a simple procedure based on the use of water-organic solvent mixtures for the extraction of phlorotannins. Crude extracts are semi-purified and fractionated by separating methods based on both the polarity and the molecular size of compounds. Phenols are then quantified by the Folin-Ciocalteu method and their radical-scavenging activity is characterized using the DPPH test. All along the purification process of phenolic compounds, the efficiency of separation is assessed by 1H-NMR. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Plant Sciences)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Plant Sciences - June 26, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Fucoidan Analysis by Tandem MALDI-TOF and ESI Mass Spectrometry
The application of mass spectrometry towards the structural analysis of the most interesting sulfated biopolymers of the brown algae—fucoidans only developed relatively recently. During method development, many problems, both chemical and instrumental, have to be solved. For example, mass spectrometry has a limitation in the analysis of anionic high molecular weight (HMW) polysaccharides because of the labile nature of sulfate groups which cause the polysaccharide to desulfate rather than ionize. Thus, decomposition methods should be developed taking into account the structural features of such a complex and fragile ...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Plant Sciences - June 26, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Characterization of Phlorotannins from Brown Algae by LC-HRMS
Phlorotannins are a class of polyphenols found in brown seaweeds that have significant potential for use as therapeutics, owing to their wide range of bioactivities. Molecular characterization of phlorotannin-enriched extracts is challenging due to the extreme sample complexity and the wide range of molecular weights observed. Herein, we describe a method for characterizing phlorotannins employing ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) operating in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) mode combined with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). (Source: Springer protocols feed by Plant Sciences)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Plant Sciences - June 26, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Extraction, Purification, and NMR Analysis of Terpenes from Brown Algae
Algal terpenes constitute a wide and well-documented group of marine natural products with structures differing from their terrestrial plant biosynthetic analogues. Amongst macroalgae, brown seaweeds are considered as one of the richest source of biologically and ecologically relevant terpenoids. These metabolites, mostly encountered in algae of the class Phaeophyceae, are mainly diterpenes and meroditerpenes (metabolites of mixed biogenesis characterized by a toluquinol or a toluquinone nucleus linked to a diterpene moiety). (Source: Springer protocols feed by Plant Sciences)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Plant Sciences - June 26, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Cameras for Conservation: New Technology Helping Developing Countries
False Bay, South Africa is a place where a growing human population collides with a dwindling biodiversity resource. The Castle Rocks no-take zone in the Table Mountain National Park is a marine protected area (MPA), which offers a refuge for the myriad of fish hiding in its kelp forests. These reserves may be controversial, but they are one of the most important tools we have for safeguarding our rapidly disappearing natural heritage.
For scientists and resource managers, understanding the diversity and abundance of fish in our MPAs is critical to correctly design, expand and enforce a network of safe havens for vulnera...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - June 9, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
10 Stunning Photos From The 2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest
The 2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest inspires a wanderlust within us like nothing else. The photos submitted from all over the world capture the beauty of natural wonder and cultures so different from our own.
If you're a photographer that would like to see your work featured in the series, submissions for the photo contest are open until June 30. The winner of the contest will receive an eight-day National Geographic Expedition to Costa Rica and the Panama Canal for two.
For the rest of us, we'll just take a tour of the world via our screens. Scroll through the photos below for some awe-inspiring action...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - June 5, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
What's REALLY in dry shampoo? Alcohol, petroleum and CLAY revealed as ingredients in popular product
The product's four unusual ingredients have been revealed in a new report. While soft clay molecules absorb grease, brown algae helps regulate the production of a natural oil known as sebum. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - June 5, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Our Ocean Crisis -- Solutions Are the Easy Part
Over the last 64 years, the geologic nanosecond in which I've lived my life, 90 percent of the largest pelagic (open ocean) fish -- including hammerhead sharks, bluefin tuna and black marlin -- have been wiped out, along with close to half the world's tropical reefs.
Our global ocean faces a cascading disaster from industrial overfishing, oil, chemical, plastic and nutrient pollution, loss of coastal and marine habitat and fossil-fuel-fired climate impacts. A report earlier this year in the journal Science suggests we may soon face a mass extinction in the ocean. It's enough to make you lose hope.
To which I respond, g...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - June 3, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Ocean Greens: The Least Deadliest Catch
In a food world that flips from fad superfood to superfood, an increasingly skeptical public has to ask which miracle crop has the staying power. In order to be called "the next Kale," a food has to demonstrate not only exceptional nutritional value, but positive environmental and ecological externalities, potential to meet large-scale need, and the ability to create jobs at home. Our nonprofit, GreenWave, and our farm, the Thimble Island Oyster Company, are betting that the new kale won't come from land at all, but rather, from the sea. We believe that long-underutilized seaweeds will become the basis of a new food chain....
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - June 2, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Seaweed Might Have The Power To Make The Oceans Less Acidic
The thick, slimy brown ribbons are notorious for tangling the ankles of beachgoers and rotting in pungent piles. But kelp, according to its growing fan base, could also prove potent in protecting the health of oceans -- and us.
"We've got some bad water heading our way," said Betsy Peabody, founder and executive director of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund. In April, Peabody's small organization in Bainbridge Island, Washington, won a $1.5 million grant from the Paul Allen Family Foundation to investigate how cultivating the seaweed might help lessen the impacts of ocean acidification.
Other research has hinted at the ...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - April 28, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Watch Your Back, Kale. Kelp Is Gunning For The Veggie Du Jour Title
With a little help, scientists say that seaweed growing along the Maine and New Hampshire coasts could become the "kale of the sea." The first step is teaching chefs and consumers how to enjoy it.» E-Mail This (Source: NPR Health and Science)
Source: NPR Health and Science - March 19, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Andrea Shea Source Type: news
Optical features embedded in marine shells may help develop responsive, transparent displays
The blue-rayed limpet is a tiny mollusk that lives in kelp beds along the coasts of Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and the Canary Islands. These diminutive organisms -- as small as a fingernail -- might escape notice entirely, if not for a very conspicuous feature: bright blue dotted lines that run in parallel along the length of their translucent shells. Depending on the angle at which light hits, a limpet's shell can flash brilliantly even in murky water. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Source: ScienceDaily Headlines - February 26, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news