Hidden dangers

Nearly a decade ago scientists discovered that two chemicals, widely used in such common household products as clothing, carpet, cookware, food packaging, sofas, mattresses, nonstick surfaces, and stain-resistant and waterproof materials, were toxic. Moreover, concentrations of the substances, which are part of a family of fluorine-containing compounds, accumulate in the environment because they don’t break down.

“These chemicals are everywhere around us, we have them in our blood, we eat them in our microwave popcorn. In a hundred years future generations will be drinking these chemicals we are putting in the environment now,” said Graham Peaslee, a chemistry researcher at Hope College in Michigan.

Current methods to test products for these perfluorinated chemicals are too expensive and time consuming to be practical. But now, Peaslee has devised a fast and inexpensive technique to detect the compounds.

The technique involves a small particle accelerator that hurtles a beam of charged ions toward a sample. If one of those ions collides with a fluorine nucleus, energy transfers to that nucleus, which then emits a gamma ray that is unique to fluorine and indicates the presence of a perfluorinated compound.

“My hope is that developing this applied nuclear physics technique can revolutionize the way we screen for perfluorinated compounds in the environment around us,” Peaslee told the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “Hopefully, that will lead to market forces that lead to a healthier environment for all of us.”

Depressive culture

Teenagers who join the goth subculture are at a substantially increased risk of depression and self-harm, according to a recent British study. Goth adolescents usually wear black clothing, pierce themselves excessively, apply dramatic black and white makeup, and listen to alternative music.

The longitudinal study of 3,694 adolescents found that teens who identify as goth at age 15 are three times more likely than other teens to be clinically depressed and four times more likely to commit self-harm at age 18.

Researcher Rebecca Pearson said the study could not determine whether participation in the goth subculture was a cause or effect of depression: “Teenagers who are susceptible to depression or with a tendency to self-harm might be attracted to the goth subculture, which is known to embrace marginalized individuals from all backgrounds, including those with mental health problems.” —J.B.

Short division

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida have turned cancerous cells in a lab back to normal, benign cells by restoring the mechanism that prevents cells from multiplying excessively.

Normal cells replace themselves by dividing, but a type of RNA molecules, called microRNAs, tell the cells to stop dividing when they have replicated sufficiently. In cancer that process breaks down and the cells keep dividing, producing huge cell reproduction and tumor growth.

When they injected microRNAs directly into cancer cells, the researchers discovered, the excessive cell division switched off. So far researchers have only tested the technique on human cells in the lab.

“There’s a long way to go before we know whether these findings, in cells grown in a laboratory, will help treat people with cancer,” the researchers told The Telegraph. But they hope the technique may one day provide an alternative to surgery or harsh chemotherapy. —J.B.