IF YOU ever wonder how some of the more ludicrous science stories get into the press, this week has provided an excellent example. Every week or so the American Chemical Society puts out a press pack, mostly of worthy-but-dull items of news that might be of interest to the media.
This week’s, sent out on Wednesday, kicked off with an item that was certainly not dull, but may also not have been very worthy. “Could advanced dinosaurs rule other planets?” it asked.
Seeing as we have precisely no information about life on other planets, I suppose the answer has to be ‘yes’. But where was the science in this?
Bafflingly, the actual meat of the story was a report by Ronald Breslow, a chemist of some standing in the community and a former president of ACS, about the remaining mystery of chirality in amino acids. Breslow speculated that the dominance of left-handed amino acids might not be repeated on other planets, and wondered what effect that might have on evolution there.
Many newspapers, led by our old favourite for accurate science coverage the Daily Mail, ran screaming banners about super-T Rexes ruling alien planets. Isn’t that a bit of a leap?
Well, in this case we can hardly blame the tabloids. The ACS press release made the same conclusion: “elsewhere in the universe there could be life forms based on D-amino acids and L-sugars. Such life forms could well be advanced versions of dinosaurs”.
Now, you might be thinking (as I did) that on Earth the demise of the dinos and the rise of the mammals had a bit to do with an asteroid impact. It’s hard to see how an amino acid could protect any ecosystem, terrestrial or alien, from such an event. Somehow the ACS has conflated two very different things, and presented the bizarre conclusion that right-handed amino acids might protect a species from asteroid impact.
Given the Daily Mail’s record on these issues, it can only be a matter of time before we learn that one sort of amino acid “causes cancer”. Or maybe that asteroids cause cancer. Or cure it.
Whichever it is, I would like to conclude that I, for one, welcome our new lizard overlords.
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Russ Swan
editor, LabHomepage.com
This week’s top stories: 13 April 2012
1. Tasmanian Devil researcher wins 2012 Eppendorf award
THE 2012 winner of the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators has been announced: Dr Elizabeth Murchison of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, takes the prize for her work with Tasmanian…
http://labhomepage.com/1403/research/tasmanian-devil-researcher-wins-2012-eppendorf-award/
2. New particle exists in two places at once
THE WORLD of quantum physics is, for most people, difficult to grasp at the best of times. The latest research published today from the Cavendish Laboratory…
http://labhomepage.com/1416/research/new-particle-exists-in-two-places-at-once/
3. Free download of data acquisition handbook
THE NEWLY-released third edition of the Signal Conditioning and PC-Based Data Acquisition Handbook is available as a free download from Adept Scientific…
http://labhomepage.com/1467/publications/free-download-of-data-acquisition-handbook/
4. Microplate seals are gas permeable for extended cell life
TRADITIONAL microplate seals create a hermetic seal over each microplate well, cutting it off from the outside world and preventing contamination. Now Porvair Sciences has…
http://labhomepage.com/1443/labware/microplate-seals-are-gas-permeable-for-extended-cell-life/
5. Kit detects histamine in seafood, wine, and milk
A NEW laboratory-free test can detect dangerous levels of histamine in foodstuffs including seafood, fish meal, wine, and milk in just four minutes. The HistaStrip test kit…
http://labhomepage.com/1432/food-safety/kit-detects-histamine-in-seafood-wine-and-milk/
6. Glove bag provides portable protection
AIR SCIENCE says its new Purair Flex provides more working volume in a portable glove bag than its competitors, thanks to its innovative curved design. The device also features…
http://labhomepage.com/1410/safety-equipment/glove-bag-provides-portable-protection/
7. Heating block is ‘student proof’
ASYNT says that the motivation behind the new, more robust, version of its DrySyn heating block system was ‘widespread demand’. We think that means that science students are…
http://labhomepage.com/1455/temperature/heating-block-is-student-proof/
8. Workstation is configurable to automate routine tasks
MANY laboratory protocols are time consuming and laborious, but may not lend themselves to lab automation because they combine functions on several…
http://labhomepage.com/1461/pcr/workstation-is-configurable-to-automate-routine-tasks/
9. Elisa kits measure anti-KLH antibodies
THE FIRST Elisa kit to exploit Stellar Biotechnologies’s Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH) protiens is now available. This research-use-only (RUO) enzyme-linked…
http://labhomepage.com/1471/drug-development/elisa-kits-measure-anti-klh-antibodies/
10. Human mononuclear cells available off the shelf
SeraCare Life Sciences has expanded its range of mononuclear cells with the launch of off-the-shelf AccuCell human cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMNCs). Viability of….
http://labhomepage.com/1439/drug-development/human-mononuclear-cells-available-off-the-shelf/