Coffee Table Science

A clinic or hospital is a place where the chances of getting an infection are higher. Evidence suggests that medical instruments like pacemakers, heart valves, catheters and stents get coated with harmful bacterial films. These hospital regulars are the primary source of hospital-based infections , accounting for two-thirds of all cases. Image Credits: Pixabay Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a new surface treatment that will enhance the safety of these instruments without increasing any financial strain on the healthcare system. The new method has been tested in both clinical and laboratory settings. In this technique, a thin layer of zwitterionic material (polymer having cations and anions) is deposited on the surface of the instrument and this layer is permanently bonded with it with the help of ultraviolet light irradiation. This layer helps to prevent germs from sticking to the surface. Researchers applied this surface treatment to v

Researchers at the Spanish National Research Council (SNRC) in Madrid have announced that they had genetically modified a strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria and taught it how to play the game of tic-tac-toe. Image Credits: Pixabay The research was started in 2019 when another research group genetically engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria that could sense 12 different chemicals and responded by changing the activity of specific genes. But, the research team at SNRC took this work and applied other modifications. They combined several copies of two circular pieces of DNA called plasmids. Each plasmid encodes a separate fluorescent protein. One is green, and the other is red. The ratio of these two plasmids was constant in bacteria, and hence, their final colour is not predetermined, though it can be affected by different chemicals and antibiotics. Also, the ratio remains constant when no modification is done. Thus, the composition of DNA remains unchanged and stores the

Photo by Oliur on Unsplash The styrofoam container that you gladly use to take out food is contributing to rising antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance develops when microorganisms like bacteria and fungi develop the potential to overthrow the drugs that are meant to kill them. The recent research carried out by Rice University scientists has shown that styrofoam supports antibiotic resistance in bacteria and provides a suitable environment for their further growth. How Does Styrofoam Add To Antibiotic Resistance? Styrofoam is a special type of styrene polymer used for making food containers. When it is discarded, it’s broken down into microplastics (small plastic pieces in the environment resulting from the degradation of consumer products) that provide a comfortable environment not only for the microbes and chemical impurities but in addition to the free-floating genetic supplies that transfer the ability of resistance to the microbes, researchers say. A paper published in