Significant Scientific News Stories 2014

Significant Scientific news stories in 2014

The unknown has fascinated me majority of the time. Science has a lot of complicated terms, but one of the things I have never really understood at all, are microorganisms. For me, they are another world that we can’t see because of the imperfection of our eyesight. We have to use a microscope so that we could understand these intriguing creatures. At first it seems that organisms so small couldn't possibly influence our lives as they do, in reality. They can improve our lives drastically by helping us as white blood cells that fight on our side in the war against viruses and bacteria harmful to our health, but also be the reason why we are presently sick (harmful bacteria or viruses). To understand them better is the reason why I looked up scientific stories about them and researched.

A recent article I found on scienceagogo.com suggests that automatic hand dryers and jet hand dryers aren't contributing to the cleaning of our hands, but to the spreading of microorganisms across the room and on our hands as well. A survey was conducted to reveal this fact. It was simple since there were three groups of people who had to wash their hands, use soap and then dry them using three different methods. After they dried their hands, the level of bacteria in the air was tested to see which way of drying hands after washing them is the most efficient. The first test group used paper towels (fig.1),

Figure 1, paper towels

the second group used an automatic hand dryer (fig.2) and 

Figure 2, a normal hand dryer

the third group dried their hands by using a just hand dryer (fig.3).

Figure 3, jet hand dryer

  All of the groups would used the same water and soap, were in the same room and the temperature was constant at all times. When they conducted their results it was just another proof that sometimes new inventions don’t turn out the way you want them to, and is better to keep the traditional method instead. The results that were collected were in the radius of two meters around the sink. Bacterial counts caused after the drying using the jet dryer were 4.5 times higher than around warm dryers and 27 times higher than air after the use of paper towels. Also, bacteria were present after 15 minutes in the air, after the use of hand dryers. I agree with the statement prof. Math Wilcox, that led this study, made:” these findings are important for understanding the ways in which bacteria spread, with the potential to transmit illness and disease.”

A very closely  article related also about germs, but more harmful ones implies that car windshield washing water has a significant amount of bacteria called Legionella (fig. 4). 

Figure 4, bacteria Legionella

This story is also on the same site as the one mentioned above, scienceagogo.com. To start off, Legionnaire’s disease, named by the bacteria, is a respiratory illness that can be severe, but most people do not react to the bacteria at all. When an infection of this disease bursts, it is associated with air conditioning. A team of scientists from the Arizona State, led by Otto Schwake, University decided to check that out. They grew Legionella bacteria in a variety of washer fluid mixtures (fig 5).

Figure 5, washer fluid mixtures

 In the end they could maintain a stable population for 14 months. The second study closely related to the first involved examining the washer fluid of school busses in central Arizona (fig.6) , and found cultivatable Legionella in around 75% of the liquids. These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology to raise awareness of what could potentially be a threat to our health because these bacteria are released into the air.

Figure 6, a school bus in central Arizona

The third and final story presents us with a discovery of a microbe that can survive in space, original story at scienceagogo.com. These findings support the concept of panspermia microbes (“seeds” of life, fig.7). According to that concept panspermia microbes exist all over the Universe and can be transported through space by comets or asteroids).

Figure 7, concept of panspermia

 The experiment was designed to see if the bacteria could survive a period of time in space without any protection. Because spores of Bacillus purnilus (fig. 8) could withstand intense space shuttle cleaning treatments, UV radiation and peroxide treatment, they were able to survive in space, and they were previously exposed for 18 months at the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) near the space station for tests.

Figure 8, Bacillus purnillus

 NASA's Kasthuri J. Venkateswaran explains that these spores surprised them because they lasted 18 months in space. As it turns out, these spores had a lot of protein that was resistant to UV radiation.  A second experiment was conducted to test the movement of organisms from one planet to another (lithopanspermia). Scientists placed rock-colonizing cellular organisms in the EuTEF facility for 1.5 years. Lithopanspermia is a really long process that happens when for example a meteor crashes into a planet and a rock on its surface gets ejected and carries organisms from the previous planet on its surface. When it lands on another planet, the organisms spread life there. For the experiment, the scientists selected organisms that could deal with extreme conditions on Earth and found out that some of them would survive as well.

In conclusion, all of these topics are, although different in some aspects, similar because they study the same topic. That is the world that we cannot see with the naked eye, as mentioned in the introduction. It is very important to understand how they work because we must be familiar with them to know how the world around us works and the reasons why some things happen. In this sense, these studies are all really valuable because they explain things that aren't yet known and they educate us about the unknown and not visible with the human eye.