Vaccine That Fights Nicotine Addiction

Cigarette smoke contains 250 different compounds. These compounds induce numerous deadly diseases all around the world. The deadliest compound which is present in cigarettes is nicotine.

When this alkaloid enters our body it cause addiction. 

There are around one billion people who suffer from nicotine addiction in the world. 

Nicotine has the same effect as drugs.

 Getting rid of the nicotine addiction is very difficult and most of the people usually get back to smoking cigarettes.

Nicotine affects the brain. When it is in our blood, it connects with receptors. 

Then the receptors send signal to the region of pleasure and the pleasure region is activated.

 Later, the brain releases more dopamine and because of that the smoker wants cigarettes more and more.

 Over time, the body needs more nicotine just to feel normal.

One Virginia tech professor is working on a vaccine that could help smokers fight their addiction. This vaccine contains nanoparticles that block the nicotine and the pleasure-receiving parts in the brain. 

The vaccine then activates production of antibodies in the liver. With these antibodies and the nanoparticles smokers will soon be able to fight nicotine addiction more successfully.

In case you don’t like to get another vaccine, simply don’t start smoking.

Plants That Can Glow In the Dark

Bioluminescence is the emission of light from living organisms. The organisms which can produce light are either invertebrates or marine vertebrates. They have symbiotic bacteria in their bodies which makes bioluminescence possible. These bacteria are called bioluminescent bacteria and some of them can live free (Vibrio harveyi) or in symiosis (Vibrio fischeri).

Bioluminescence is a product of one chemical reaction between luciferin pigment and the luciferase enzyme. The enzyme catalyzes the oxidation on luciferin and the released compounds are oxyluciferin and light. This released light is bioluminescence.

Energy is needed for this chemical reaction. Genetic engineering allows scientists make bioluminescent plants. But how it that possible?

The first bioluminescent plant was created in 2010 (Nicotiana alata) by a biotech company called Bioglow. Scientists mapped and separated the gene for producing light from the bioluminescent bacteria. Then this gene was put into the chloroplast genome of the plant. That’s it.

In the future we might be using bioluminescent tree instead of modern streetlight.

Mammoths Might Live Again Soon

Mammoths are species of elephants which disappeared 10,000 years ago. They have weighed 8 tonnes and have been 4 meters tall. But some species have weighed up to 12 tonnes. These mammoths, which live in cooler environments have coat and the other species which have lived in warmer environments were uncoated and they looked like today’s elephant. They have been eating grass only. The reason why mammoths disappeared in fact, is the climate, which began to warm and the trees started to grow taller, and thus forests appeared.  

The first fossil of mammoth was discovered around 1700. To this day paleontologists have been founding many fossils of mammoths. Some of these fossils were found frozen and some parts of them unfrozen. In the today’s genetics researches have one method which allows them to get these giant and beautiful animals back on Earth. This method is called cloning.

Cloning is a method which allows us to get two identical organisms. The first step is getting an embryo from the elephant in laboratory environment with in vitro fertilization. Then, fresh tissue from a mammoth fossil is needed and the cell from the tissue is mapped. Before cloning, the scientist must get DNA from the mammoth to know which parts of DNA must interpolate in the embryo cells of the elephant.

When the DNA have been successfully interpolated in embryo cells, it will be imported in a uterus of a female elephant, which is the surrogate mother. This method still needs to be further developed, but scientists estimate that we’ll have mammoths among us again in 30-50 years. 

The Role of Microorganisms in Dividing Metals

Microorganisms play great role in producing food, such as milk products, beer, wine, bread etc. Other than this, they are used for getting completely new types of products.

With the advancement of biotechnology microorganisms are starting to be used for dividing some metals from materials that contain iron and sulfur. This has been enabled by the discovery of a type of bacteria called chemoautotrophic bacteria.

They use iron sulfate for food in a specific way. They divide the sulfate from the iron, thus releasing sulfuric acid which bonds with not easily soluble materials (copper, zink, nickel) and creates soluble compounds.

The main microorganism that is used for dividing metals is Thiobacilus ferroxidans which oxygenates the iron sulfate, thus releasing sulfuric acid that ravages the ore. The bad side of this process is the creating of many toxic substances which are contained in the ore, including gold, mercury, arsen and sulfuric acid. 

This method is less present because of the pollution and it is in a developing stage. Researchers are working on finding better methods for cleaning the toxic wastewater.