Fingerprint Instead Of Blood Sample To Detect Drugs And Diseases

David A. Russell and his coworkers from the University of East Anglia which is in Norwich, UK, find out a different way to differentiate between smokers and nonsmokers, without using blood tests.

This study used fingerprints to distinguish between smokers and nonsmokers. Usually a fingerprint leaves tiny traces of perspiration, because the skin need to expel some substances, so they used this perspiration to determinate the existences or not of cotinine, which is a metabolite formed by the body when the person consumes nicotine.

In order to do it, they wet participants' fingerprints with a solution which had cotinine antibodies ( not nicotine antibodies to avoid results' misinterpretations, because anyone can touch nicotine), and after cotinine antibody is bound to cotinine, the antibody was tagged with a fluorescent dye so they could see cotinine , if they saw fluorescence the person was a smoker, and if they didn't the person wasn't.

As you can see this technique allows lots of possibilities, thought they haven't been tested yet. But in a future it will make possible to obtain more information of a fingerprint for forensic investigators, like the suspect's habits and diseases or drugs and medications consumed by the suspect.

If you want to know more about this you can look for it in the magazine Angewandte Chemie International Edition, year 2007, No. 22, pages 4100-4103 by the name of "Intelligent" Fingerprinting: Simultaneous Identification of Drug Metabolites and Individuals with Antibody-Functionalized Nanoparticles" or you can read it at this website: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=71233

Medicine... How did I end up here?

I'm not saying at all I don't want to be here, I've worked really hard to be here, so don't misunderstand me, OK?

Since I was a little girl I've always dreamed about becoming a Doctor, though I have no idea what made me feel that way. Maybe I realize about all the help a doctor can give... and I got in love with the idea.

After that, I had a few hesitation about it in high school, because I'm really good at math and physics, but I'm not that good at biology and medical stuffs. However, I realize that enjoying what I wanted to study was more important than being already good at it, and as I couldn't see myself as a engineer, chemist or anything else but a Doctor I discovered I had made up my mind.

And now I think what motivates me to keep studying is what I'm going to be when I graduate. I mean, I'll be able to heal people!! to know why and how people gets sick, and at the same time I can do something about it! It think accomplishing that deserves all the hard work I must do now.


Some really cool websites you should check!:

http://www.nbc.com/ER/
Remember this TV show which took place in an Emergency room?... Well I was a fan of it when I was in high school, and it encouraged me to go through high school with my best effort, because it would led me to a "better place".... so you have to check this, and you'll even be able to find episodes here.

http://medlineplus.gov/
If you want to find out about a disease, as long as it isn't very complicated as Tyrosinemia, you'll find here what you are looking for... It's a friendly site =)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
Here you can find lots of books which will help you with your subjetcs, and the best part of it is they are for free!! , and it's legal!!

bye bye

My weekend!

Last weekend was really cool for many reasons, first one is that I had almost 3 days to do everything I usually don't have the time to do, and second, because I went to my uncle's birthday party and I had a really good time, and I also went to this University party, where I had the change to dance with some of my friends.


This party thing was on Friday, and it was completely unexpected. We stayed late with 2 friends, Ariel and Vania, because we wanted to participate in a salsa lesson. But after looking for it in the whole campus we noticed there wasn't going to be a lesson, so we thought it would be better to go home.


Just at that second we notice there was music down where we were, and we decided to go and look what was going on, after all, we were really excited about dancing that day, and music is music.


It obviously was a party, and we had a great time, though we had to wait until "the party get started".


What was really funny about this, was that everybody who saw us was really sorprised about we dancing at the party, because we don't look very much as party girls( but it doesn't mean at all we don't like them).

P.S.: I tried to take photographs of this, but it was really dark, and all I could get was a black picture.... =(

My English readings

There are lots of things I enjoy reading in English, such as my daily horoscope, all kind of quotes, and jokes.

I have a few web sites that I love, where I read all this stuffs, and you can have them if you like, you just have to post me and I'll post you back =).

What I like the most is reading jokes, they are so funny, and I love laughing, it makes you feel better because it unleashes an endorphin increase and you feel really really happy ... What would be better?

And as I want you to be happy I'll show you a joke I like...:

The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you
are qualified to be a professional manager. Scroll down for each answer. The
questions are NOT difficult. But don't scroll down UNTIL you have answered the
question!

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer
is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question
tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator? Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator? Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your
previous actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend... except one. Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory. Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a
boat. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been paying attention? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

and this is really really funny, but i couldn't put it here.. http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/Driving_Test_Flow_Chart

Hope you like them both =)

A Cool English Song =)

Hi, again...



In case you don't know me very much, I like to listen english music, so it wasn't that easy for me to choose ONE song, when I knew I was supposed to talk you about one here.



I chose a KT tunstall's song, that probably you've never heard about, from Eyes To The Telescope album.



The song's name is Stopping The Love, and it was my wake up alarm for a couple of weeks, but I changed just because I didn't want to get bore of it...



Well, I'll stop writting and I'll show you my song =)

So you think it's funny

That you keep calling me all of the time

everyday Oh honey

Don't want to be following and falling behind

If you're gonna be walking away

And I don't know

Why I wouldn't follow

Wouldn't follow

You got me looking up

Even when I'm falling down

You got me crawling out of my skin

You got me wondering why I am underneath this big old sky

Stopping the loving getting in

Stopping the loving getting in

Now you say it's easy

That you been falling for all of my charm

And getting lost in my smile

Never ceases to amaze me When

I'm chancing my arm

That I still do it with style

And now I hope

You'll be with me tomorrow

With me tomorrow

You got me looking up

Even when I'm falling down

You got me crawling out of my skin

You got me wondering why I am underneath this big old sky

Stopping the loving getting in

Stopping the loving getting in

You got me looking up

Even when I'm falling down

You got me crawling out of my skin

You got me wondering why I am underneath this big old sky

Stopping the loving getting in

If you want to listen to it, you'll have to buy the CD, because I couldn't find the song in the web.... =P, but it'd really worth it =).

Introduction

I know I've been changing blog maybe too much lately, but this time was't by own choise, I HAD to do it.

But don't get the wrong idea, I like the idea of having a new blog, so I won't blame Ksenia for it.

I have no idea what this blog will be about, but i'm sure it won't be bored, my blogs never are... lol.

So, feel welcome to post in my blog, and i hope you like it.