Archiving, Antibiotics and the Longhorn Harlequin Beetle

• If CDs and DVDs can’t be counted on to store data for over 10 years, what can one do? Here are the possibilities: 1) Copy (back-up) a CD with data to another new CD disk every 5 to 10 years. 2) Store data on an external hard drive? No, for manufacturers provide only a 3 or 5 year warranty on their disks. 3) Transfer CD data to archival tape, but this gets into a more complicated technology, and even then there are no guarantees after 50 years or so. 4) Copy data on archival CDs. A CD starts out as a polycarbonate (plastic) disk on which a film of dye is placed. The dyes used, either phthalocyanine or an azo dye, are pretty stable. The dye layer is then coated with a reflective silver layer, and a protective film of lacquer is added. Although the dyes are quite stable, the silver-reflecting layer tarnishes over time due to exposure to light, heat, oxygen, and humidity. The new “archival” disks use 24 Karat gold instead of silver, and manufacturers claim they may last up to 300 years (with proper care). Two manufacturers are MAM Mitsui (produced in the U.S.) and Kodak Preservation CD-Rs. The good news is longevity. The bad news is that they cost about $2.50 apiece and in a hundred years or so computers may not be able to read them.

One more way to preserve images is to print them on archival paper using a printer that creates the image with pigment-based inks. Stored properly, these should last a century. (Various, including “Seeing Forever” (by D. Pogue) in Scientific American, April, 2011)

• Antibiotics play a dominant role in suppressing bacterial infections, but within the past few years more and more antibiotic-resistant bacteria are appearing in clinics and hospitals across the globe.

Physicians have a number of antibiotics at their disposal to treat patients, but when all others fail they often turn to a class of drugs called carbapenems. These are antibiotics of last resort. Now we learn that new strains of bacteria have evolved that are resistant to these drugs. Scientists have identified two genes in the bacteria that provide the resistance, but there are no new antibiotics in the pipeline that are effective in dealing with the bacteria that carry these genes.

Drug companies are reluctant to develop drugs to treat carbapenem-resistant infections because of the expense involved in bringing to market a drug that would be effective for only a short period of time. It may be that bacterial evolution is outpacing man’s ability to produce drugs to suppress bacterial infections and diseases. Essentially, it’s a race against evolution. (The Economist, April 2, 2011; Scientific American, April, 2011; other sources)

• The Longhorn Harlequin Beetle of the tropics is a beautiful and unusual insect. The adults reach three inches in length and have a variegated pattern of red and yellowish green on their wing covers. They are unusual in two ways. First, the front legs of the male are as long as the entire body. Second, many adults have tiny spiders called “pseudoscorpions” living under their wing covers, and when the beetle flies the little spiders attach silken threads to the its abdomen and go along for the ride of their lives.

• Children generally live in either an “authoritarian” household (where their behavior is highly controlled), or an “authoritative” households (where warmth and encouragement of self-direction prevails). A Temple University study of over 20,000 high school students noted that children of authoritarian households tended to have elevated anxiety and depression. On the other hand, children raised in authoritative households were generally psychologically healthy. Youngsters in both groups received comparably good grades. (Scientific American.com, April, 2011)

• Taking potassium iodide pills after exposure to excessive radiation can help prevent thyroid cancer, but beyond this, there are no drugs available that will help diminish the effects of damaging radiation exposure. However, two drug companies in the U.S. have developed drugs that may help diminish radiation effects (which typically affect bone marrow and the gastrointestinal tract, and break chromosomes in body cells that are dividing). (Science, Mar. 25, 2011).