There are more than 700 species of bacteria in the mouth one of which is Streptococcus mutans, a key component of plaque. This bacteria forms layers called biotims on the teeth and it converts sugars to acids which eat up the enamel creating cavities in the process. There are other beneficial bacteria like Streptococcus salivarius found on the tongue and soft tissues of the mouth and it is known to fight the build up of S. mutans biofilms.

Hidenobu Senpuku, who is a biologist in National Diseases in Tokyo and his collegues used chromatography in a bid to isolate proteins from S. salivarius so that they could find out what was responsible for its cavity fighting powers. Cultures were prepared and mixed with S. mutans cells. The culture with protein FruA had the smallest biofilm and this was evidence that it was the most powerful biofilm blocker.

Researchers discovered an off-the-shelf FruA gotten from fungus Aspergillus niger also had the similar qualities despite the fact that it has a different amino acid sequence to the one found in the mouth. Senpuku reckons that this will speed up production of toothpaste that contains FruA.

According to a report in Applied and Environmental Microbiology the researchers found that when they increased sucrose concentrations in the mixtures containing S. salivarius FruA abd S. mutans their ability to prevent biofilm formation decreased. This, according to the authors, explains a study in 1996 that found that FruA contributed in cavity formation in rats.

A microbiologist from Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts called Mary Ellen Davey agrees that this discovery could lead to development of a better toothpaste though she admits it will not be an easy task. The main challenge lies in coming up with a formulation that will keep the enzyme active on the shelves in the drug stores.

Whereas agriculture land is increasingly reduced is inversely proportional to the amount of human population which continues to grow. This cause the need for food also to be increased. People make bio-ethanol from food crops because process is simpler. It needs to make a breakthrough, so that all non agriculture crops can be converted into alternative fuel. The sugar from Non agriculture plants more difficult to convert into bio ethanol because their structure more complex. Sugar on agriculture crop is type of monosaccharide, while the non agriculture is polysaccharides. Monosaccharide is the simplest type of sugar and easier to convert into ethanol. Polysaccharides such as cellulose are difficult to convert because it’s structure more complex. To break down cellulose, it is a necessary long stage and more expensive enzyme.

In the conversion of the sugar into ethanol, occurs symbiotic mutualism between the sugar and bacteria that called anaerobe. Until now there is no bacteria that can live on cellulose. In recent years the experts continually strive to create a genetically engineered bacterium that capable decompose cellulose into bio-ethanol

Jay Keasling engineer biology in Emeryville California lead a team to make a breakthrough. They use E Coli bacteria, because it is easier inserted gene. These bacteria are filled with different genes for different task. These bacteria are divided into two groups. Each group is inserted genes to breakdown cellulose and hemicelluloses. Both group then split into three groups and each group re inserted genes. This used to create the chemical precursors to make three types of fuels namely: gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
To facilitate the decomposition of cellulose researchers are treating the plants with special treatment.

They give this plant names switch grass and give the ionic liquid IL. Provision of ionic liquids intended that the fibres of the plants can receive engineering bacteria. In the future are expected the plant switch grass can produce gasoline, diesel and jet fuel with the help of E Coli bacteria engineered. Until now this enzyme still produce adequate 10% of needs. Jay Keasling says it will continue to improve its performance. Hopefully in the future can be engineered bacterium that is capable of converting all kinds of plants and organic waste into fuel with simple stage and cheaper cost.

Researchers have been conducting experiments regarding the presence of illegal drugs in the atmosphere since the mid 90s and in 2007Angelo Cecinato uncovered a horrifying truth. Cecinato and colleagues found small amount of cocaine in the air of many major cities of the world. With further research Cecinato discovered that drug concentration in the atmosphere is naturally higher where drug use is higher.This information could help in finding which areas or regions have high drug use rate and should be a lot better than the traditional survey, questionnaire and police record method.

But Cecinato and his colleagues needed to know how precisely they can be related to crime rate. Their main area of research remained within Italy. They collected information regarding the presence of cocaine and cannabinoids (active ingredient of marijuana) from various regions. And to find the correlation between drug use and criminal activity they used Pearson Regression Coefficient (presented by R2). As we know an R2 of 1 means the two factors in consideration coincide completely.

The group of researcher compared their findings with the drug amount seized by the police and found that the value of R2 for drug-criminal activity correlation were .54 for cocaine alone and .73 for total drug substances. Also value of R2 for people looking for detoxification treatments exceeded .94.

They also found some statistical relationship between cocaine level and cancer and cannabinoid level and mental disorder.But Cecinato says that these finding should not be used as any standard but as some starting point for some future researches.Even though it isn’t declared formally, Cecinato gives a warning that level of cocaine could easily lead to heavy secondhand cocaine use.

These scientists are using equipment at Parkes, as well as NASA’s fermi Gamma-Ray Space telescope, in hopes of understanding how these objects create their immense waves of radiation.

This project has tracked down 25 super-fast ‘millisecond’ pulsars in two years. This is significant because it is the the same number uncovered over the last 20 years of research.

Head Parkes researcher, Dr. Simon Johnston states, “This has been a hugely productive collaboration, and it is generating unprecedented returns for physics and astronomy.”

Kim Carr, Innovation Minister, has this to say: “We have a proud history of cooperation and involvement with NASA on a number of fronts, from assisting with communicating with the Apollo missions to the moon, to deep space exploration, and understanding how our universe works.”

Pulsars essentially emit beams of radio waves and gamma waves, sometimes simultaneously. Radio telescopes like the one at Parkes can detect radio waves as they sweep through the Earth. Unfortunately, gamma-rays are blocked by our atmosphere and can only be studied using space telescopes.

NASA and CSIRO have shown that the best results are achieved by combining both land and space-based techniques. The Fermi space telescope finds unidentified sources of gamma-rays and Parkes investigates for radio wave pulses. Parkes is also currently timing 168 radio pulsars which Fermi might then be able to study.

“We work out exactly when the pulsar’s radio beam sweeps over us. That tells us how fast the pulsar is rotating,” Dr Johnston continues. “If Parkes can get the timing precisely right through the radio wave pulses, we can build up a picture of the gamma-ray pulses by collecting a few photons every time the pulsar beam sweeps past.”

So far, this group project has seen intriguing results. Of 60 objects which have been found to emit gamma-rays by Fermi, 20 of them do not emit radio pulses.

“The most likely explanation is that these pulsars do have radio beams, but they are just not sweeping across the Earth, so we can’t detect them.”

The Solar Dynamics Observatory or SDO run by NASA used the seismic technology referred to as helioseismology to predict the arrival of a sunspot on the sun’s surface accurate within two days. This prediction and new technique has prompted its consideration as a forecasting instrument for space weather.

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections result from sunspots and can be the cause of power outages on earth, as well as the disruption of satellites and telecommunication devices. Although the potential for damage is large, scientists have had little success with predicting such storms until now. To put the potential harm into perspective, it would be applicable to consider a solar storm like the one experienced in 1921. An event of that magnitude today would leave over 130 million people without electricity or telecommunication.

Large sunspots are associated with more powerful solar storms. Stathis Ilonidis, the lead researcher at Stanford University stated, “Every time we detect a very large sunspot, we know that there is higher probability for solar storms.” This new technique will become even more important as the risk for solar storms becomes greater over the next ten years. In that period, the sun is expected to have lower solar activity with fewer sunspots. However, these tend to be greater in size and therefore produce stronger storms.

Despite the new technology, some still do not know how well this will help forecast solar storms. The timing of sunspots is easily identifiable, but that of the solar storms remains unknown.

In the article Monash University’s Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich pointed out that at the time spinosaurs lived, about 110 to 120 million years ago, Australia was not geographically isolated as it is today. The new find seems to argue that its fauna was not isolated either, but instead included many species that could also be found in other parts of the world.

Museum Victoria’s Dr. Thomas Rich, who is Research Adjunct in the School of Geosciences at Monash University, pointed out that before this find, spinosaurs had only been found in Europe, Africa and South America. The fact that they lived in Australia sheds new light on their evolutionary history and supports the theory of widespread distribution of dinosaur species in the Early Cretaceous Period.

The identification of the spinosaur vertebra comes on the heels of the discovery of Australian fossils from other dinosaur groups formerly thought to only exist in the Northern Hemisphere, and further substantiates the idea that many species existed worldwide.

This indicates these groups of dinosaurs were already widespread when all the Earth’s land was one big super-continent. They had reached all parts of the huge landmass, and therefore existed in all of the continents when they split up.

The find was made in 2005 close to Cape Otway Lighthouse in Victoria by Michael Cleeland and George Casper. It was later identified by Dr. Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London, who was lead author of the paper. Collaborating with Dr. Barrett on the analysis were Dr. Roger Benson of the University of Cambridge, Dr. Rich and Professor Vickers-Rich.

The fossil is only about 4 cm. long, indicating that it came from a spinosaur about two meters in length. It existed in the Early Cretaceous Period, which was about 105 million years ago.

In the report, the authors state that teachers need to do a better job of communicating to their students just how science and engineering impact their daily lives. Rather than teach little pieces of a broad range of topics, it is suggested that certain core ideas are covered extensively and that teachers emphasize the way that science enters and affects other disciplines. Integrating principles used by scientists into each lesson is thought to be paramount in the teaching of science in the K-12 classroom.

It has been shown through decades of research that children learn by doing. Throwing facts at them is not helpful once a test has been passed and the next topic is introduced. The report explains the three dimensions of science education: eight practices that govern the operation of scientists and engineers, cross-concepts such as cause and effect that belong in every course and, finally, the four core concepts within each of the four disciplines (physical, life, Earth and space sciences and engineering).

What about other fields of science? The authors of the report explain that social, behavioral, economic and computer sciences have not traditionally been included as part of a science curriculum at the grade school level. The report goes on to state, particularly of computer science, that these lessons are individual and distinct from other sciences and, therefore, not included in their research.

With the amount of research that went into NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and the development of curriculum taught in the core subjects, it will be interesting to see if our national education leaders will use the advice in this report and restructure the way science is taught. It is said that teachers would welcome any resources that would move their instruction of the sciences forward.

Policy and Communications Director at Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science, Robert Ward, agreed with Jones’ report, stating reporters often allow sources too much leeway in misrepresenting the way climate change policies contribute to the rise in fuel bills, for instance. Roger Pielke, Jr., however, at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research in Boulder, Colorado, criticized the report because it relied on only one author. He stated the report misses the point because when the BBC says they cover science, they never actually explain what that means. He also said the media covers both sides of an issue just because politicians debate it, and not because it is interesting science.

The dinosaur, herbivorous and belonging to the Cretaceous period, has been named Koreaceratops by South Korean researchers, Japanese and Americans on the team, in honor of their country of origin.

The remains of this dinosaur were discovered in a rock containing bones of the hip and tail together, something that rarely happens. It’s interesting that bones were found by chance by an employee of the South Korean city of Hwaseong in Gyeonggi Province.

Ceratopsians were herbivorous dinosaurs with beaks of birds and bony jaws similar but smaller compared with the geologically younger, giant relatives like Triceratops found in the U.S., but whose fossils have also been found in China, Japan and Mongolia.

According to research results published in the German scientific journal Naturwissenschaften, this was a bipedal dinosaur about five feet in length, with a semi-aquatic life.

The discovery of this new type of dinosaur supports the theory that ceratopsians were originally from Asia, but reached its peak in the Cretaceous in what is today North America.

Steps in the scientific method are:

• naming the problem to be addressed
• making a hypothesis or educated guess about the problem
• testing the hypothesis through an experiment or observed correlation
• gathering the data
• organizing the data in a graph or other form for examination
• examining the results
• checking the results
• drawing a conclusion
• publishing the data

By following the scientific method, scientists allow others to verify their results and add to the increasing wealth of knowledge about the world.