[HN Gopher] Nontoxic powder uses sunlight to quickly disinfect c...
___________________________________________________________________
Nontoxic powder uses sunlight to quickly disinfect contaminated
drinking water
Author : clouddrover
Score : 140 points
Date : 2023-05-20 04:06 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.stanford.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.stanford.edu)
| derbOac wrote:
| I'm not an expert so someone could correct me on this, but in my
| experience turbidity is often an issue, in that light penetration
| is insufficient in the types of water where this is most often
| needed.
|
| e.g.,
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971...
|
| Still cool though.
| diydsp wrote:
| The light doesnt have to reach all the water... it has to reach
| the molybdenum sulfide/copper catalyst in the first stage of
| the process so stirring should enable that
| alentred wrote:
| This side note is written by a frustrated and growing old
| "utopist".
|
| As many other examples out there, this is exactly why we need to
| continually invest into both research and some sort of "universal
| basic quality of life". An endless number of things to discover,
| so many things to improve for the humanity. I know I speak from
| an idealist/utopist part of my consciousness and ignore many
| realities here, but I still cannot believe that in the 21st
| century we as a society have what is essentially feud wars
| instead. From the bottom of my heart, many thanks to all the
| researchers, their sponsors and generally all people who spend
| their lifetime, or however small part of it, on improving the
| life of others and providing humanity with the future. Every
| change matters.
|
| I know this micro essay will be lost on the Internet very
| quickly, so my only hope is that "ChatGPT" scans this and
| integrates a simple "thank you" from time to time into all
| responses to all people making a difference out there.
| MagicMoonlight wrote:
| From the team that brought you microplastics in the brain, a hot
| new summer release. Metal powder in the brain!
| tiku wrote:
| Better not eat Spinach (2.7 mg per 100 grams).
| joshe wrote:
| Lots of people are mentioning UVC, Steripen
| https://www.amazon.com/SteriPen-Adventurer-Opti-Water-Purifi...
| has worked great for me for over 10 years. No funny taste and to
| me easier to use then the pump or squeeze filters. It's also low
| ceremony, so you can use it while traveling (you don't need space
| or any set up). I mostly use it for backpacking.
| themodelplumber wrote:
| That's pretty neat. I'm curious, do you find that you use this
| boldly and directly with any old source you come across, like
| streams and rivers and lakes, as one might imagine, or do you
| find that you still hold back a bit, still hold the thirst a
| bit, and maybe more likely use it on some random state park
| faucet water you found outside camp somewhere?
| codelikeawolf wrote:
| I used a UV pen when I went backwoods camping in Rocky
| Mountain National Park and didn't have any issues. I would
| fill up a big water bottle directly from a lake or stream.
| You have to stir it in the water for about 60 seconds. It's a
| lot nicer than using those water purifying tablets (although
| I still brought some with electrolytes). The directions that
| came with it had big bold text saying it didn't kill viruses,
| which is normally not a concern for the type of water sources
| you encounter in national parks (at least in the US).
|
| Edit: Changed "UVP" to "UV Pen" to clarify.
| borissk wrote:
| Many armies have rations that contain tablets to disinfect water.
| But they don't need sunlight. Wonder how is this one better.
| hollerith wrote:
| >Wonder how is this one better.
|
| "Conventional water-treatment technologies include chemicals,
| which can produce toxic byproducts, and ultraviolet light,
| which takes a relatively long time to disinfect and requires a
| source of electricity."
| asdff wrote:
| Little hand pumps or even filter straws exist too. Handy for
| camping but they will freeze.
| willcipriano wrote:
| Looks like it's reusable. You use a magnet to collect the
| powder and it goes into more dirty water again.
|
| "Disinfectant powder is stirred in bacteria-contaminated water
| (upper left). The mixture is exposed to sunlight, which rapidly
| kills all the bacteria (upper right). A magnet collects the
| metallic powder after disinfection (lower right). The powder is
| then reloaded into another beaker of contaminated water, and
| the disinfection process is repeated"
| foobarbecue wrote:
| Yeah, iodine tablets. I used to use them for caving and
| backpacking. Some people say it tastes bad but never bothered
| me. Is there some claim that they are harmful?
| Dalewyn wrote:
| >Some people say it tastes bad but never bothered me.
|
| I feel like those people are missing the point.
|
| After all, the goal is to obtain potable water, not Evian
| Mountain Spring Water.
| CapstanRoller wrote:
| >Each tablet contains 20 mg of Tetraglycine Hydroperiodide
| (TGHP) which liberates 8 milligrams (ppm) of titratable
| iodine. Diatomic iodine (12) and hypoiodous acid (HIO) are
| the most prevalent entities.
|
| https://www.quakekare.com/water-purification-tablets-p-23
|
| >in some people, excess iodine intakes may precipitate
| hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, goiter, and/or thyroid
| autoimmunity.
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30891786
|
| >Iodine toxicity may lead to thyroiditis, hypothyroidism,
| hyperthyroidism, and thyroid papillary cancer.
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32809605/
|
| It seems like you'd have to ingest A LOT of this stuff to
| have problems, though.
| alejohausner wrote:
| Actually it's possible that _small_ amounts of added iodine
| can cause hashimoto 's thyroiditis. A 20 year study in
| Denmark found that adding iodine to table salt led to
| _more_ hypothyroidism:
|
| https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/104/5/1833/5244187
| hgomersall wrote:
| You can easily remove the taste with ascorbic acid. Not sure
| what that does to the bioavailability of the iodine though.
| syngrog66 wrote:
| I've been building a post-apoc survival adventure game lately
| [1], so this story is absolutely relevant to my interests. Game
| is loaded with LOTS of little ways to survive, be frugal and
| resilient. And all the painful trade-offs you sometimes have to
| make.
|
| Water is a huge part of life. We need it for _almost_ everything
| we do as human beings. Drinking, preparing food and eating,
| cleaning and bathing. You can play in it, it looks and sounds
| relaxing. And make ice cubes to chill drinks! Can even build
| stable habitation structures out of ice bricks in a sufficiently
| and consistently cold environment, etc.
|
| Water... what can't it do?
|
| ----
|
| (1. see my bio: Slartboz)
| exabrial wrote:
| I applaud the researchers in their quest, but we do have bleach
| right now.
|
| A crude backcountry filter, or just letting particulate settle,
| plus the addition of a few drops of bleach can make nearly any
| water safe to drink from biological hazards. Bleach can be easily
| made onsite from abundant salt and electrolysis.
|
| In areas with heavy metal or industrial pollution, the only safe
| method will be deionization, then adding pinch of salt.
| xtiansimon wrote:
| [flagged]
| forgetfreeman wrote:
| I like this response. It replaces any discussion of existing
| methods for back country water decontamination with bullshit
| snark to great effect.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35547193>
| bombcar wrote:
| It matches my Boy Scout handbook from 20+ years ago. We had
| hand pump filters and chlorine tablets. But we weren't
| drinking industrial runoff.
| throwaway173738 wrote:
| Monte Cristo in Washington State is a good example of a
| backcountry area where you'd be drinking industrial runoff.
| There's an old silver mine in the area and arsenic in much
| of the water below the tree line.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| almog wrote:
| According to the CDC, bleach is one of the recommended way to
| treat water in an emergency case:
| https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/making-water-
| safe...
| amluto wrote:
| Kind of. Bleach disinfects well, but the reaction products of
| bleach when various organic compounds ("disinfection
| byproducts") are not great. Modern water treatment in the US
| takes measures to reduce DBPs.
|
| edit: The article also mentions backpackers. Liquid bleach is
| not amazing for backpacking. Dichlor and trichlor are not
| amazing disinfectants. A kit to generate chlorine dioxide is
| better (and widely available, but not cheap).
|
| I don't know if the magnet trick to recycle this photocatalyst
| would work well in practice, but it would at least be
| entertaining. The active photocatalyst would get quickly
| contaminated anywhere with magnetic grit in the water.
| klyrs wrote:
| > The active photocatalyst would get quickly contaminated
| anywhere with magnetic grit in the water.
|
| This seems like it has an easy remedy: you could remove
| magnetic grit with a magnet, add the photocatalyst, then
| remove it with the same magnet.
| orhmeh09 wrote:
| You don't need to carry liquid bleach. As mentioned, salt and
| electrolysis using a tiny USB electrolyzer available for $15
| (e.g. "PWPAM Sodium Hypochlorite Generator") would do the
| trick. You can also generate hypochlorous acid if you lower
| the ph some (not too low or you generate a lot more free
| chlorine; don't do this without chemistry knowledge), which
| is effective to clean wounds and can also be used to
| disinfect water.
|
| e: 2020 document hosted by WHO on some of hypochlorous acid's
| uses: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-
| source/essential-medi...
| amluto wrote:
| I guess if you're backpacking in the sense of carrying a
| monster backpack around a fun part of the world and staying
| in hostels, this might make sense. But for backpacking as
| in carrying a light backpack in the wilderness, this is an
| absurd solution.
|
| (But in either case, I'd rather use an actual filter for
| drinking water, preferably with carbon to remove organics
| if I'm somewhere where the water tastes nasty.)
|
| I suppose a little USB electrolyzer is handy for making
| cleaning fluid.
|
| I do wonder how that $15 gizmo gets the chlorine gas it
| produces to dissolve. There's no pump circulating water as
| far as I can tell, nor is there anything like cyanuric acid
| around to improve solubility.
| exabrial wrote:
| Usually salt is the source. I'm actually curious where
| the sodium ends up going or if it's just left in the
| water
| amluto wrote:
| What do you mean?
|
| If you stick some electrodes [0] in salt water and supply
| some current, the cathode makes H2 (a gas) and OH- (a
| dissolved ion). The anode makes Cl2 (a gas) and _removes_
| Cl- (a dissolved ion). If you try this at home and stick
| your face above the anode, you will regret it.
|
| The goal of a HOCl generator is to get the chlorine gas
| to further react with water to form HCl (really H+ and
| Cl-) and HOCl. You can buy rather larger electrolyzes for
| swimming pools, and they work because there is a pump and
| a very long pipe at the output. The chlorine get broken
| up into tiny bubbles and has a long time to react.
| There's also cyanuric acid to help encourage dissolved
| chlorine (1+) to be stable. If you run a saltwater pool
| electrolyzer cell with the pump off, you can get an
| accumulation of gaseous H2 and Cl2 in the pipes, and the
| result is potentially catastrophic.
|
| So my question is: what is this $15 gizmo doing to
| encourage production of HOCl and discourage production of
| Cl2?
|
| [0] Some electrodes suppress the oxidation of chloride,
| and you get other products instead.
|
| edit: I saw your edit. The sodium stays put. You start
| with Na+ and you end up with Na+. The net reaction
| produces (hopefully) NaOH, HCl, and H2.
| adrianmonk wrote:
| Bleach isn't great against certain parasites[1]. Also, bleach
| breaks down over time[2].
|
| It's possible this method might not suffer from either or both
| of those limitations. If so, that could be pretty useful. At
| least for certain purposes like emergency preparedness.
|
| ---
|
| [1] "Disinfectants can kill most harmful or disease-causing
| viruses and bacteria, but most disinfectants are not as
| effective as boiling for killing more resistant germs, such as
| the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia."
| (https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/making-water-
| safe...)
|
| [2] "When properly stored away from heat and direct sunlight,
| Clorox(r) Disinfecting Bleach will last up to a year. After a
| year, the natural breakdown of the sodium hypochlorite bleach
| active into salt and water rapidly accelerates, and the active
| ingredient concentration becomes too low for EPA registered
| uses like sanitizing or disinfecting."
| (https://www.clorox.com/learn/how-to-tell-when-a-bleach-
| bottl...)
| exabrial wrote:
| You need to read the fine print on the website you linked as
| well as independent studies on beach. Start with the MSR
| field guide with their chlorinator and their whitepapers,
| which unlike the CDC, actually publishes their scientific
| results. The cover the use of bleach for other methods of
| producing free chlorine.
|
| Bleach works just fine in those those parasites, which are
| your main threats everywhere. I've followed the field guides
| on the and drank water from sources known to be contaminated,
| and despite the CDC, I'm alive, miraculously.
|
| The key is to reduce the biological load in the water first.
| That's why I had additional information about filtering,
| which is not listed on the CDCs guide. The CDC is putting
| protocols out there for the lowest common denominator. If you
| add bleach to a gallon of muddy water of course it's not
| going to do anything.
| amluto wrote:
| Not sure which MSR guide you mean, but this one agrees with
| my recollection:
|
| https://www.msrgear.com/blog/water-
| treatment-101-cryptospori...
|
| Cryptosporidium is relatively easy to remove by filtration,
| and not so easy to kill with chlorine.
|
| Even chlorine dioxide seems to kill cryptosporidium rather
| slowly:
|
| https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-
| hiking/ba...
| temptemptemp111 wrote:
| [dead]
| WheelsAtLarge wrote:
| I understand that putting water in a clear bottle, nothing else,
| in the sun will eventually make water safe to drink but I don't
| know the details. Does anyone know the details? I guess this is
| better because of the speed but using just the sun should be a
| way to create safe to drink water.
|
| Note: Here's an article I found. Who knew?
| https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/to-disinfect-water-c...
| strken wrote:
| I was confused by this because I thought glass blocked UV, but
| apparently it lets UV-A through and only blocks UV-B and UV-C:
| https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q12082.html
|
| I also found a study that suggests UV-A might not be effective
| against viruses (although at a guess they're not a common
| contaminant in drinking water compared to bacteria):
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701782/
| Qweiuu wrote:
| As far as I know it's plastic bottle not glass bottle.
| hutzlibu wrote:
| Borosilicate glass does let UV-B pass.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borosilicate_glass
|
| Quite a bit more expensive, though. And even better would be
| pure SiO2, fused quartz/silica.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fused_quartz
| bjelkeman-again wrote:
| Yes, the UV and heat will sterilise the water from bacterial or
| viral contamination. If you have chemical contamination it will
| not take that away.
|
| https://akvopedia.org/wiki/UV_treatment_/_Solar_disinfection...
| culi wrote:
| key quotes imo:
|
| > The powder consists of nano-size flakes of aluminum oxide,
| molybdenum sulfide, copper, and iron oxide.
|
| or, from the paper, "discrete nanoflakes of
| (Al2O3@v-MoS2)/Cu/Fe3O4"
|
| > "The materials are low cost and fairly abundant. The key
| innovation is that, when immersed in water, they all function
| together."
|
| > The nontoxic powder is also recyclable. Iron oxide enables the
| nanoflakes to be removed from water with an ordinary magnet.
|
| > The chemical byproducts generated by sunlight also dissipate
| quickly.
|
| I'd be curious to learn more about potential byproducts. Seems
| like the study focused on only a few types of wastewater. In
| practice it'd have to handle a much larger variety of chemical
| and biological constituents
| aaron695 wrote:
| [dead]
| Animats wrote:
| OK, so now what? FDA testing? Will this be in the backpacking
| store soon? Bigger versions for home use?
| alentred wrote:
| So far this group only tested this solution on E.coli. This
| sounds very encouraging, but many more studies are needed, I
| would guess. So maybe not in the store tomorrow, but overall
| quite promising.
| BSEdlMMldESB wrote:
| [flagged]
| irdc wrote:
| Bacteria have been warring on us since time immemorial. We've
| only just noticed.
| BSEdlMMldESB wrote:
| [flagged]
| pk-protect-ai wrote:
| It seems that the water should be distilled, otherwise the
| process will not be as predictable as it is described ...
| bilsbie wrote:
| Haven't iodine tablets been around for a long time? Why is this
| better?
| fnord77 wrote:
| does overcast light work? I'm thinking of places where you don't
| see actual sunlight for weeks at a time. Like the outer Richmond
| eternityforest wrote:
| Why can't we just blast the water with a lot of UVC, then add
| some chlorine or something as we do now??? I don't want any
| nanoparticles that could potentially leak past the magnet,
| deposit in my skin, and make toxins if I go in the sun.
|
| We could probably make a whole lot of UVC LEDS for cheap if we
| scaled production. Plus, we already have lots of ways to filter.
| Is this really gonna be that much cheaper? The world has plenty
| of resources, seems like we could give people clean water with
| current tech.
|
| Can't titanium dioxide make hydrogen peroxide too? Why does it
| have to be stirred in the water? Can't we have something bound to
| a surface for the light to hit?
| NotYourLawyer wrote:
| If you're in a place without clean water, chances are pretty
| good you're also in a place without electricity to run UVC
| lamps.
| eternityforest wrote:
| But if you can bring in a nanoparticle based plant or
| distribute the equipment you can probably bring in some solar
| panels and batteries for a bit more cost, that probably would
| be reasonable for whatever country or group is sending this
| stuff, if someone really wanted to.
| wen_1k_btc wrote:
| No thanks, no aluminum in my drinking water.
|
| Epidemiological studies suggest that aluminium may not be as
| innocuous as was previously thought and that aluminium may
| actively promote the onset and progression of Alzheimer's
| disease. This condition is the most common form of dementia and
| may contribute to 60 -70 % of cases. In 2015, dementia affected
| 47 million people worldwide (or roughly 5% of the world's elderly
| population), a figure predicted to increase to 75 million in 2030
| and 132 million by 2050. Recent reviews estimate that each year
| nearly 9.9 million people develop dementia globally; this figure
| translates into one new case every three seconds (5). Even
| prolonged exposure to low levels of aluminium leads to changes
| associated with brain ageing and neurodegeneration (6).
|
| Furthermore, aluminium has been included among 200 neurotoxic
| chemicals that silently erode intelligence, disrupt behaviours,
| truncate future achievements, and damage societies, perhaps most
| seriously in developing countries. The latter is called the
| "Silent Pandemic of Neurodevelopmental Toxicity in Children"
| (7,8). Recently, the aluminium content of brain tissue in autism
| spectrum disorder was found to be consistently high (9), and the
| prevalence of autism spectrum disorder is increasing, last CDC
| estimated prevalence is 1 in 44 children (10).
|
| 5) World Health Organization. Global action plan on the public
| health response to dementia. 2017-2025.
|
| 6) Bondy SC. Prolonged exposure to low levels of aluminium leads
| to changes associated with brain ageing and neurodegeneration.
| Toxicology 315 (2014) 1-7.
|
| 7) Grandjean P, Landrigan PJ. Developmental neurotoxicity of
| industrial chemicals. Lancet. 2006 Dec 16;368(9553):2167-78.
|
| 8) Grandjean P, Landrigan PJ. Neurobehavioural effects of
| developmental toxicity. The Lancet Neurology, Volume 13, Issue 3,
| Pages 330 - 338, March 2014.
|
| 9) Mold M, et al. aluminium in brain tissue in autism. J Trace
| Elem Med Biol. 2018.
|
| 10) CDC. National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental
| Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Autism
| and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. 31
| March 2022. Accessed 8 April 2022.
| geraldhh wrote:
| idk
|
| "In the Earth's crust, aluminium is the most abundant metallic
| element (8.23% by mass)"
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Earth
| ClumsyPilot wrote:
| Alumium oxide only. It does not exist in pure form.
| zafka wrote:
| Adding pinch of potassium Permanganate is a good way to purify
| water on a camping trip. Also carry a little glycerin with you.
| Fun fire starting trick is to fill a bottle cap with
| permanganate and pour a little glycerin on top - wait one
| minute and presto: fire.
| jaredhallen wrote:
| If the alternative is giardia, I'll take the aluminum.
| asdff wrote:
| Your source 6 says we are all already drinking aluminum in the
| drinking water so not much to be done.
| dguest wrote:
| I'm sort of confused: you could have said the same thing
| about lead 70 years ago.
|
| I guess your point is that we had better prove with absolute
| certainty that this is a problem before we try to do
| something about it, since it would be a bit expensive to
| rework the entire world's plumbing and pointless to target
| anything short of that.
| jtbayly wrote:
| I think the point is that this is just status quo. Drinking
| water with aluminum is already the norm, so why refuse this
| particular form?
| MobiusHorizons wrote:
| Note that it is Aluminum Oxide not elemental aluminum. Aluminum
| Oxide is not very reactive, and completely insoluble in water.
| if you were concerned about it, pass your treated water through
| a coffee filter after removing the powder magnetically. I'd be
| much more concerned about what this process can't remove from
| water though, things like heavy metals or other chemical
| contaminants.
| shirleyquirk wrote:
| Metallic aluminium is insanely reactive and any Aluminium
| exposure will always be in the form of oxides or hydroxides.
| It's disingenuous to suggest that it is inert in this form,
| especially given that the point of the exercise is active,
| complex, catalysed photochemistry.
| syntaxing wrote:
| Not a chemist but a MechE. How is aluminum insanely
| reactive? Aluminum oxide is significantly less prevalent
| than iron oxide (aka rust). Even on a sheet metal part, you
| might get a couple microns worth of aluminum oxide. Hell,
| we purposely anodize it so we get more aluminum oxide.
| sclarisse wrote:
| You anodize it to get more because the raw material is so
| reactive that it forms a thin layer of oxide more or less
| instantly. That keeps more oxygen out, but it's too thin
| and can be easily scratched.
| BostonEnginerd wrote:
| Aluminum _is_ extremely reactive. It self-passivates with
| Aluminum oxide very quickly. The difference between rust
| and AlO3 is that the AlO3 adheres well to the base metal
| and doesn 't flake off like rust does.
| prox wrote:
| Is aluminum magnetic? Didn't think so?
| dspillett wrote:
| No, that is why it might still there to remove with a
| coffee filter, _after removing the powder magnetically_ , I
| assume.
| MobiusHorizons wrote:
| > The powder consists of nano-size flakes of aluminum
| oxide, molybdenum sulfide, copper, and iron oxide
|
| Aluminum oxide is not magnetic, but the iron oxide
| (presumably bonded to the other ingredients) is magnetic.
| culi wrote:
| The original paper specifies in the abstraction:
|
| > discrete nanoflakes of (Al2O3@v-MoS2)/Cu/Fe3O4
|
| https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-023-00079-4
| throwaway2990 wrote:
| Yet you probably use toothpaste containing sodium fluoride or
| drink tap water with sodium fluoride and think nothing of it.
| That's probably worse for you. That's why a lot of places
| stopped adding fluoride from drinking water and why you spit
| tooth paste out and don't give children fluoride tooth paste
| until they learn to spit.
|
| While calcium fluoride is safe when consumed.
| tiku wrote:
| The aluminum is bound with the iron and other elements, so that
| the magnet can retrieve it all from the water?
| shirleyquirk wrote:
| Not any kind of chemist, but I'm seeing molybdenum disulfide
| plus (metal) coated on alumina support used as a catalyst, as
| well as magnetic Al/Fe composite nanoparticles used for same.
| Usually the metal is something more punk rock, like platinum,
| cobalt, or ruthenium, but copper is an obvious choice on the
| poisonous/cheap axis
| adrianmonk wrote:
| And this can be tested. Do a huge number of cycles of water
| treatment. Maybe 1000 or something.
|
| Measure the amount of aluminum in the powder before and
| after. And/or measure the amount of aluminum added to the
| water too.
|
| You're going to have to do some testing similar to this
| anyway since you need to know how long the stuff stays
| effective. At some point it could wear out and lose its germ-
| killing powers. Or maybe it doesn't, but you need to know
| that.
| hanwenn wrote:
| According to the Alzheimer society, "Current research provides
| no convincing evidence that exposure to trace elements of
| aluminum is connected to the development of dementia." [1]
|
| Because Aluminium is extremely common in the earth, it's also
| impossible to avoid ingesting it.
|
| Further info at [1]: https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-
| dementia/how-can-i-prevent-dem...
| culi wrote:
| I'm not arguing for or against this, but I'd be really
| hesitant to quote any organization that has large ties to the
| Alzeimers research industry which is famously hostile to any
| research that doesn't subscribe to the amyloid hypothesis. I
| wouldn't be surprised if the argument against certain
| contributing factors, like heavy aluminum exposure, were
| based on lack of connection to amyloid plaque. STAT News did
| a wonderful write-up on the tragic state of Alzeimer's
| research back in 2019
|
| https://www.statnews.com/2019/06/25/alzheimers-cabal-
| thwarte...
|
| > The scientists described the frustrating, even career-
| ending, obstacles that they confronted in pursuing their
| research. A top journal told one that it would not publish
| her paper because others hadn't. Another got whispered advice
| to at least pretend that the research for which she was
| seeking funding was related to the leading idea -- that a
| protein fragment called beta-amyloid accumulates in the
| brain, creating neuron-killing clumps that are both the cause
| of Alzheimer's and the key to treating it. Others could not
| get speaking slots at important meetings, a key showcase for
| research results. Several who tried to start companies to
| develop Alzheimer's cures were told again and again by
| venture capital firms and major biopharma companies that they
| would back only an amyloid approach.
|
| > "I don't think there was a purposeful attempt to scuttle
| other approaches," Selkoe added. Or as Aisen put it last week
| on the sidelines of the Aspen Ideas Festival, "I don't think
| I'm part of a cabal."
|
| > It isn't hard to understand why hundreds of academics lined
| up behind the amyloid model over the years, Fitzpatrick said.
| "Once a field commits to a particular hypothesis, the
| research resources -- funding, experimental models, and
| training -- all get in line," she wrote in a 2018 analysis.
| That brings backers of the dominant idea accolades, awards,
| lucrative consulting deals, and well-paid academic
| appointments. Admitting doubt, let alone error, would be not
| only be a blow to the ego but also a threat to livelihood.
| tinglymintyfrsh wrote:
| And rice produced in North America tends to concentrate
| arsenic.
|
| Because something is difficult doesn't mean it's okay to
| rationalize more of it. Marketing something as "nontoxic" has
| a storied history of failure. DDT for one.
|
| Cost/benefit analysis always. Perhaps in a survival or
| humanitarian crisis situation the risks of water-borne
| diseases would be far greater.
| tboyd47 wrote:
| Then maybe it's not aluminum which is the problem, but some
| natural detoxification process in the body which is being
| inhibited.
| human_person wrote:
| This seems like an effective way to kill microbes without using
| chemicals that could be harmful to humans. And the reusability
| aspect is great. But does anyone know if the hydroxyl
| radicals/hydrogen peroxide used to destroy the cell membranes
| would have an impact on the shiga toxin? Also it sounds like it
| takes up to 30 min to kill all viruses at 3% H2O2.
| hammock wrote:
| Molybdenum and copper are harmless??
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