Posts

Miracle weapon headache tablets: How aspirin can help in everyday life

Image
It is one of the best-known medicines on the market and is freely available in almost every country: The headache tablet. The fact that it not only helps against a buzzing head after a party but is a real all-rounder among medicines is shown by its excellent side effects, which research from the natural sciences reveals. A milestone in the natural sciences is the invention of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), marketed in 1899, initially under the name Aspirin. Today, this active ingredient is an essential component of many headache tablets. Its origin was discovered more than 2,000 years ago to reduce fever and relieve pain: the substance salicyl contained in willow bark. For example, the physician Hippocrates, born in 460 BC, used it. The acetylsalicylic acid contained in most headache tablets relieves pain and reduces fever. But Aspirin can do much more: here are a few hacks: Aspirin ASS not only helps against headaches. Not just for headaches: ASA A dissolved headache tablet in flower wat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Monkeypox - the next exciting zoonosis

Image
There has been an unusual increase in monkeypox infections in Europe and the USA in recent weeks. The cause is not yet clear. What is monkeypox? Monkeypox is caused by the Orthopoxvirus simiae, a relative of the human pox viruses (variola, smallpox) and cowpox viruses. Monkeypox is a regular occurrence in Africa, probably transmitted from rodents to monkeys, sometimes to humans. They are pretty rare outside Africa. Smallpox (variola) was a dreaded infectious disease until the last century, which is hopefully a thing of the past thanks to consistent worldwide control and large-scale vaccination campaigns - in 1980, the WHO declared smallpox eradicated. Compulsory vaccination was abolished in the FRG in 1976 and in the GDR in 1982. This vaccination was carried out at an infant age; older people usually bear extensive scars on their upper arms. Smallpox also raged horribly in Europe before vaccination, which is why the reports of monkeypox are spreading so much fear right now. According t...
Post a Comment
Read more

How DNA is packaged for cell division

Image
In the journal "Science", research groups from Heidelberg and Würzburg present the inner workings of the molecular machinery that forms DNA into chromosomes before cell division. Human cells perform a technical feat when accommodating information in the smallest spaces. Each time a cell divides, it bundles the four-meter-long DNA into 46 tiny packets, each only a few millionths of a meter long. Research groups at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL Heidelberg and Julius Maximilians University Würzburg (JMU) have discovered how a family of DNA motor proteins packages loosely arranged DNA strands into compact individual chromosomes during cell division. Condensin forms loops of DNA It was not until 2018 that Christian Häring and his team at EMBL Heidelberg showed that condensin molecules form DNA loops - providing a possible explanation for chromosome formation. However, the mechanism by which the protein complex accomplishes this feat remained unclear. We have been ...
Post a Comment
Read more