RSC Blog

Trade in yer peg-leg for a real leg, mateys! Alchemists from Italy have discovered how  to transform wood into bone, and logged it in the ArrrSC Journal o’ Materials Alchemy.

Ahem.

A historically-accurate image of a buccaneer, complete with peg-leg

Although it’s not International Talk Like A Pirate Day until 19 September, this story called for a buccaneering theme. A relatively simple, multi-step chemical process to turn wood into bone has been reported by Anna Tampieri and colleagues at the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, Faenza.

The organic structure of the wood is the perfect template for bone tissue suitable for use in repairing damaged limbs, which, in times past, might have been replaced with a peg leg. Cue stage right: gratuitous pirate picture, complete with all stereotypical accessories including wooden leg.

By changing the chemical composition of the wood, step by step, into hydroxyapatite (the main constituent of real bone) but retaining its natural structure, Tampieri’s team believe they have created a material that has the strength and structure of bone and could be suitably biocompatible for use in surgery.

Journal o’ Materials Alchemy (ok I’ll stop now) subscribers can view the article here.

Not good news for diabetic vampires, but for non-porphyric sufferers a potential new drug to treat both diabetes types I and II has been discovered.

Garlic: the saviour for diabetics?

The new drug, based on allixin, a compound found in garlic, can be administered orally – perhaps as a tablet – and effectively lowers the blood glucose level of type 1 diabetic mice, the study has found.

Type 1 diabetics currently stick to a daily regime of self-injection with insulin, whereas type 2 diabetics are treated with oral drugs, sometimes leading to undesirable side-effects.

This is a great story from the first round of Advance Articles from our new journal, Metallomics, the first issue of which will be published next year.

The article itself, by Hiromu Sakurai and colleagues at the Suzuka University of Medical Science, Japan, is available free here.

Personally I wonder if a garlic-based drug would give you bad breath… any other opinions on this?