I've been a little less than 14 years working for companies involved in health. The first, a pharmacist (yes, to me Farmafia paid, so what?), the second, my current job, medical devices.
Both places are a good source of science, and if you scratch it a little, can realize that the reason why we are alive and we have a better life expectancy, is the basic science.
In my view (discussion welcome), there are two types of science discovery. The direct and indirect. The straight is one that is dedicated to finding something, I can think of cancer studies, or for how they discovered the AIDS virus, in short, science-led. The other, indirect, is trying to study something, whatever, and see what comes out. It I can think of studies of fruit flies.
I'd like to share some indirect findings of science which has become a full exploitation of its potential and, at times, has helped increase our life expectancy.
Needless to say that these examples are closely linked to my work, so if someone from my work reads this, maybe you already know for the courses I teach.
Fever and crabs
must define the term pyrogen:
Piro - Fire
Geno -
agent pyrogens are fever-causing agents in our body. There are several, but I'm going to focus on those from bacteria, which are known as bacterial endotoxin.
A high fever can be fatal. That's why medical devices to be placed directly into the bloodstream or cerebrospinal fluid, it is necessary to have a controlled amount of pyrogens.
Today, there are already regulations that tell you what is the limit must meet, depending on the type of medical device, and how invasive it is. But let's go a bit in the past and understand how the technique for measuring pyrogens, has to do with a crab.
Certain types of bacteria (Gram negative) release pyrogen pyrogens as these are in their cell wall and when the bacteria die, because "the body" of the bacteria causing the fever.
A guy named Frederick Bang in the fifties found that the crabs' blood clotting in the presence of gram negative bacteria, even though they were dead. From that little discovery, led to the Food and Drug Agency of the United States agreed to a technique for measuring pyrogens based on cells of the crab in the seventies. The technique has been completely revolutionized and exploited, as there is evidence of clotting, chromogenic and turbidimetric, but all need the blood from the pericardium of good crab. Thus, if a device is measured me your amount of pyrogens and does not comply with regulations, it must be discarded and thus avoiding unnecessary fever could be fatal.
sterilization and bacteria
Another feature of some medical devices is that they are sterile. Rather, it has microorganisms that are sterile and can no longer reproduce.
This is basic, if you put a device inside someone non-sterile, depending on the degree of contamination, you can send to know San Pedro. That's why some devices have a stage that is called sterilization.
There are different types, but for illustration, I will focus on two. That of ethylene oxide gas, and heat.
ethylene oxide gas can not be regarded as very friendly, explosive, carcinogenic, highly toxic, but it's great to sterilize. That's why science is a very specialized sterilization that takes years to master.
In short, medical devices are exposed to the gas to sterilize and now. Sure, it takes a lot of things as pressure, gas measurements, gaps, and much more. But, not for the fact that the device is exposed to gas, like say it is sterile. That's why our friends come here bacteria.
Depending on the volume of devices to be sterilized, it is necessary to introduce in each load to be sterilized, a type of organism called Bacillus Atreophaeus. This guy resists, and good resistance to any change in temperature, climate, pressure, or any adverse conditions to their needs. It does this because it is protected and "mummify" waiting for optimal conditions to return to its "normal." This makes it very hard to kill. But the gas, which can be disabled to play. When the devices come into contact with the gas, so does the Bacillus atrophaeus, and when it finishes the sterilization process, the bacteria are removed from the burdens and are incubated to see if they grow. If you do not grow, it means that you can not play, therefore, the sterilization was effective. If the organism grows, it means that sterilization did not work.
The other method is also used heat, but for this type, you use another type of microorganism, Geobacillus stearothermophilus, which, as its name implies, holds high temperatures. The same principle applies, they get to be sterilized, was removed after process, and incubated to see if they grow
These two types of sterilization are procedures approved by health departments, there are many, many regulations for use, and proved a great effectiveness. Everything to avoid putting risk in patients during surgery. What an imagination of which he has thought of using bacteria to prove effective in sterilization. Chulada.
Another case we can read this post from Science for fun , where someone's curiosity to know why the mollusk Cypridina glowed in the dark, led to techniques used in biology as molecular markers used to detect and cure of cancer. It also led to a Nobel prize.
What can we conclude?
I've seen, not only markers in Mexico but gringolandia also, which shows that there is widespread ignorance of the people to basic science. Just this week listening to a podcast where he said that 1 in 5 gringos did not know that the Earth revolved around the sun Chale.
This is partly by the government. If the government is committed to basic science, it is very difficult for the average citizen engagement with science. Governments must in my opinion, set out to discover. Designate funds to see what lies beyond what we know. Without this, we can lose a lot of surprises, or techniques that result in, among other things, better health of citizens.
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