Sanitary space fish
I got to wondering about those alcohol-based hand sanitizers that you see everywhere now, since I don't much care for how everything else has antibiotics. CVS doesn't seem to carry plain old ordinary liquid hand or dish soap, for example. The problem I have with that is that antibiotic soap isn't significantly more effective than normal soap when used properly, and improper use can lead to bacteria that aren't killed by the soap's antibiotics. But alcohol-based cleaners aren't nearly as selective as antibiotics (they break proteins pretty effectively) so I did a basic Google search, and came up with this from the first few hits: it's very effective against a broad range of pathogens, but only for the immediate application -- it won't be effective against anything you come in contact with later. However, the "kills 99.9% of germs" claim is a lie, since they're not tested on actual hands, which have a wider variety of stuff on them than they may be testing for. On top of that, it won't actually remove anything on your hands. So people using them because they come in contact with kids, the public, etc. are best served using it immediately before and after that contact. Also, different brands come in different dilutions, like 60% alcohol to ~90% I think, and the lack of water in the stronger dilutions might actually work against the alcohol's denaturing powers.
***
On a whole different topic, the CIA classified a photo of Area 51, taken by Skylab back in the `70s. The linked article explains in more detail: basically Area 51 was used as a test site for experimental aircraft, and also for aircraft "acquired" from the Soviets, and there was disagreement about whether to admit that. The military agencies wanted to classify the photo because the base itself was classified, NASA wanted to release it because they didn't want to be involved with spying or secrecy. It's an interesting read.
***
There is some concern that coelacanth populations are being harmed by trawling. Coelacanths are the most famous example of a living fossil, a species that has existed for an extremely long time when other similar species have failed. This fish first appeared about 400 million years ago, and until it was rediscovered alive in the 1930s, everyone assumed it had gone extinct long before anything resembling humans appeared. (Apparently it doesn't have a true backbone, just a notochord, which says to me it's more closely related to lampreys and hagfish than true fish. But the article also suggests it has fins that resemble a lungfish's pseudo-limbs. I don't know much about these animals.) But anyway, Japanese deep-sea trawling might be driving them into shallow water where they're caught in shark nets. Soooo... yeah, awesome.

No comments:
Post a Comment